[rwilcox]

For some years now, Consumer Reports magazine has had an amusing (and sarcastic) feature called the Golden Cocoon. The Golden Cocoon, with a photograph and sarcastic comments, is awarded to the company which did the most egregious job of packaging wastefully and in an environmentally hostile manner -- for example, a teeny packet of candies coddled in swaths of cardboard and plastic. What guidelines and methods might packaging engineers best use to avoid the "Golden Cocoon" syndrome while protecting the product, achieving shelf space presence, making the package big enough to deter shoplifting, etc.? What additional objectives have I forgotten to include in the "etc."?