Lock inside package

This thick plastic packaging looks about as hard to crack as the laptop lock it contains. "Wrap rage" is what some consumers suffer when struggling to remove a product from a sealed plastic shell resistant to poking, prying, and tearing. Emergency room doctors report regular visits from people who blame battles with packaging for gashes, amputated fingertips, and severed tendons.

But the days of wrap rage and related wounds may soon end as corporations move away from fused "clamshell" or "oyster" designs toward easier-to-open, more ecologically sustainable forms and materials.