A few days ago this little package arrived in the post. Inside was a pay-as-you-go sim card, but it was the packaging that caught my eye. The sim was wrapped in a letter that doubles as the envelope through a series of clever folds that are secured by a sticker. A simple idea, but this was well executed and intricate enough to be interesting without feeling over-complicated or over-engineered.
GiffGaff, who sent it to me, write about how they have done it to avoid wastage, in terms of both materials and money. But does it? Well it saves on paper as you don't need a envelope as well but whether it's works out as being cheaper is debatable. There are folds over folds here that would make any printer take a deep breath and they still had to stuff the sim inside so there's very little saving there either. But none of that is really the point. It may not be saving money or saving the planet but it sure looks fun and I have had it sat on my kitchen side for the best part of a week now and I'm willing to bet that had been in a normal envelope I would have thrown it away without a second look. Of course I'm programmed to look out for things like this so I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
