Packaging

One of the worst things about getting a new gadget or toy is trying to free it from the hard plastic casing. To reduce those battles, Amazon.com Inc. said it was working with manufacturers to make the products it sells easier to open and more environmentally friendly. Initially, the online retailer is altering the packaging in the U.S. for 19 top-selling products from manufacturers including Mattel Inc., Microsoft Corp. and flash memory card maker Transcend Information Inc. The online retailer said that it is looking at eliminating plastic "clamshell" cases and plastic-covered wire ties that hold items in place.

The next time you make some microwave popcorn or cook a frozen pizza, consider this: The packaging of many of these products contains a chemical that the Environmental Protection Agency considers potentially carcinogenic and wants businesses to voluntarily stop using by 2015. Studies show that this chemical -- perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA -- is present in 98% of Americans' blood and 100% of newborns. It doesn't break down and thus accumulates in the system over time.

It is hard to spot what happened this year in the peanut butter aisles of local supermarkets. But a careful look at the jars of Skippy on the shelves may reveal a surprise. The prices are about the same, but the jars are getting smaller. They don't look different in size or shape. But recently, the jars developed a dimple in the bottom that slices the contents to 16.3 ounces from 18 ounces -- about 10% less peanut butter.

Fourteen years after the J. Paul Getty Museum purchased a 4th century BC Greek funerary wreath for $1.15 million from a Swiss art dealer, 17 months after the Greek government formally demanded its return and eight months after the museum agreed to do so, the delicate gold headpiece is about to go home.

Coca-Cola Co. redesigned its 20-ounce soda bottles to cut the amount of plastic by 5% after being criticized for using too much packaging. The new contour bottles also have shorter caps that are easier to open and an embossed Coca-Cola logo similar to the ones on glass bottles, the Atlanta-based company said. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo Inc.

Santa Monica city officials, hoping to put an end to the blight of discarded take-out boxes and beverage cups on their beach, are gearing up to implement a ban on nonrecyclable foam and plastic early next year. Facing a Feb. 9 deadline, most of Santa Monica's restaurants have switched to biodegradable food containers.

As a surfer, Dean Kubani is used to seeing bits of plastic cups and takeout containers as they bob by his board on the waves of Santa Monica Bay. "I'm always picking up trash and tucking it in the sleeve of my wetsuit," he said. "It's a constant problem." Unlike most other surfers, Kubani, Santa Monica's manager of environmental programs, is in a position to do something about the water-borne detritus.

THERE are two things I call "baby": my dog and my bicycle. For practical reasons, I couldn't take my pooch along on a trip to Florida to visit family. But I decided to take my custom-fitted road bike. Bad enough I had chosen a sport that requires wearing Lycra. But taking my bike meant I had to obtain an appropriate packing box, learn how to disassemble (and reassemble) the bike, budget for extra baggage fees and figure out where to ride at my destinations. I was determined, though.

Beck loaded up his new album "The Information" with a bonus DVD with homemade videos for each song and stickers that fans can use to create customized CD covers, all in the hope of giving consumers more reasons to buy it. So what happens? In England, the album has been disqualified from appearing on sales charts because those extras give it "an unfair advantage" over less elaborate packages. The ruling comes from the Official U.K. Charts Co.

Berle Adams, a onetime big-band booking agent who co-founded Mercury Records in the 1940s and later became a senior executive at MCA before launching his own successful business as an international television program sales representative and distributor, has died. He was 92. Adams, who had been ailing during the last year, died Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said Ken Kleinberg, his son-in-law. "One of the things that's exciting and fortuitous about his life is he rose to great stature during a period when the music business was young and the television business was young," said Kleinberg, an entertainment lawyer.