Party packs of ice cubes

Whilst stuck behind a man at the supermarket buying his party pack of ice cubes, a thought struck me. How environmentally friendly are the party ice packs?

I am guessing not very. First you have a big factory making the packs, hopefully although not certainly they make them with water filling up lots of little ice bags (just like the ones you can buy in the supermarket to make your own without the need of an ice tray). If they freeze them at the factory and then transport them to the supermarket in temperature controlled lorries it would be a highly irresponsible act.

Then once you have your 100 little bags of water inside the big bag they have to be transported to the supermarket. Here they are put in the freezer to freeze over night and then you buy it in the shop and take it home.

This almost seems like a criminal waste of energy and effort not to mention the environmental impact. Perhaps selling ice in the supermarket should be banned, although obviously large trade sales would be allowed to continue.

For a party the alternative would be to buy loads of ice cube bags and make your own. I guess many people would argue they just don't have the time. Plus as a society we still don't always think of the environment first in all aspects of our life.

It does seem that we worry so much about the big things in life such as global air travel but then turn a blind eye to the little things like energy efficient light bulbs, recycling and ice cubes simply because it takes a bit more work.