The Amazing Pizza Box Video?

Yes, I said “The Amaz­ing Pizza Box Video.”  it is not a typo. Need proof that the oppor­tu­nity to inno­vate is all around us?  Check out this 45 sec­ond video from Eco Incor­po­rated, a com­pany who is “sav­ing the envi­ron­ment one pizza box at a time.”  

This is such an awe­some con­cept for so many reasons.

First is the obvi­ous rea­son, it helps to reduce waste.  This is a no-brainer.  I have eaten thou­sands of piz­zas in my life.  While I have used an entire pizza box lid as a plate before, I never thought to per­fo­rate it and cre­ate 4 plates from it.  This is just bril­liant.  It elim­i­nates the need to dirty up reg­u­lar plates, and the fol­low­ing need to wash them, and also elim­i­nates the alter­na­tive of paper plates which cost money and cre­ate waste.

Sec­ond this idea is so sim­ple.  It makes me happy to see some­thing that is easy to do and ben­e­fi­cial at the same time.  It is not as if they are say­ing “Stop order­ing piz­zas to save the envi­ron­ment.” They are ask­ing me to help by doing less, not more.

Third, the stor­age idea.  This is prob­a­bly the most use­ful aspect of all.  I hate to use tup­per­ware or saran wrap to store old pizza.  The method of choice is the “lazy” option of shov­ing the whole box, usu­ally with only a piece or two in it, into the already crammed refrig­er­a­tor.  This solu­tion saves me space and aggra­va­tion, is portable should I opt for cold pizza for break­fast in the car the next morn­ing, and again min­i­mizes effort and max­i­mizes benefit. 

Finally, I love that the idea is being pro­moted using a sim­ple YouTube video and not a multi-million dol­lar ad cam­paign.  The idea is bril­liant, and it should not need a redicu­lously expen­sive adver­tis­ing bud­get to catch on.  The idea is the adver­tis­ing.  This seems to be a small com­pany, and they prob­a­bly don’t have a ton of cash to blow on a super­bowl ad — though that may not be true for long.  If I were in charge of a pizza place, I would weigh three times what I cur­rently do and I would order these boxes immediately.

The next time you think that life is just too mun­dane, and that you have seen it all, remem­ber what these guys did with the bor­ing old pizza box.

Thanks to Dan Pink for point­ing me to the video.  As Dan advised, I did smack myself in the head for not think­ing of this idea.