I recently ordered some extra Sanyo eneloop batteries when they were on sale at Dell. They’re great rechargeables, but I don’t know why most packages always come with a charger – I now have three of them from previous purchases.

However, when I received the package from Dell, I was surprised at the size. It came in a huge 18″x13″ bubble envelope:

I thought it was just excess shipping packaging, but opening the enveloped made it clear that the packaging was only just big enough to hold the actual item:

For batteries with packaging that seems to imply they’re good for the environment, you think they would have made the packaging a little less excessive. The packaging is still 100% recyclable, but it still costs energy to make it.

At least Dell didn’t put the already-large item in a huge shipping box.