We have discussed whether shopping the internet is green or not. Sure it saves on transportation costs from the product and customer to the retailers. It also cuts down on utilities in the store, as well as, the need for more stores.
We haven't discussed the packaging. It is important to consider what packing materials your purchases arrive in and what you do with them after their arrival. Are all the packaging and packing materials recyclable and do you recycle them?
Amazon, the grand daddy of online retail, has launched a new four point rating feature on the site to allow customers to give feedback on Amazon and partner retailer's shipping. The system includes how easy it is to open the manufacturer's packaging as well. Amazon has been working with manufacturers to create easier to open and more environmentally friendly packaging since 2008.
So shop away and enjoy but please be responsible with packaging.
--till next week Restore, Recycle, Refresh & Renew
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10 comments:
I personally think that some retailers have better packaging than others. I ordered three v-necks from American Apparel and they used very minimal packaging, however I only ordered a sweatshirt from somethinggreek.com and they sent me a whole entire cardboard box, with a bunch of tape and all the extras involved. I think it varies from company to company the damage they due to their packaging.
I buy tons of things off of Amazon and have never noticed any excess packaging used. I wish other companies would look further into using minimal/environmentally friendly packaging.
A random company I have noticed which does not care at all about this matter is Office Max. During my co op we constantly ordered supplies from Office Max - I will never forget the unnecessary enormous boxes they would mail us paper clips and pens in. It made me so angry to see all of these packing materials that I doubt were recyclable go into the trash.
I hope it becomes the new fad for large companies like Office Max to begin using recyclable packaging and packing materials very soon.
I work at Victoria Secret and often have to process shipment. I find it insane the amount of packing they use. I once unpacked a box of tee shirts where every t-shirt was individually bagged in plastic and then had a tissue paper insert in the fold. The one thing I do appreciate is the customers who tell inform us that we do not have to wrap their single free cotton panty in tissue paper and give them a bag. I do feel that more and more people are becoming more aware about the importance of sustainability rather than being concern with how many cute shopping bags they are carrying around the mall.
It definitely depends on the company what the packaging is like. I know that when I order online, if I'm at home, I keep the boxes and use them for storage. Sometimes, if the need arises, I'll use them to ship something else. I know my parents reuse boxes they get in the mail. If you have no use for them, though, I guess the best thing you can do is break down the boxes and recycle them.
One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing an excess of unnecessary packaging whether it be in purchasing items online or in person. Although the reusable shopping bag is now everywhere and seems to be overdone, I think this "trend" is one that can actually better the environment and should be adopted by all. Plastic bags are used in excess and if everyone carried around a "green" shopping bag, we would eliminate so much waste. http://www.sustainable-development.com/environment/2009/08/A248/the-united-kingdom-significantly-reduces-plastic-bag-waste.html
This article talks about how grocery stores in the UK have cut the number of plastic bags given out to customers in half over the past year. I hope the US follows suit so that soon plastic bags will become obsolete.
I haven't really bought anything from Amazon aside from used books. The packaging for those were wasteful, but that was probably because it came from other people who aren't environmentally friendly. As far other online retailers' packaging that I have interacted with, www.fredflare.com does a pretty good job in stuffing everything you ordered neatly into one box without any extra frills. It is a cardboard box which can be reused. Another online store www.bodyartforms.com gives the customer the option of using the least amount of packaging as possible.
PS. Bubble wrap is fun, but they need to make a type of bubble wrap that can be recycled and or used for something else, not just plastic trash.
Recently, I was reading an article by Stefanie Michaels and had discovered that Switzerland is the "greenest" country of the Western world. The article discussed how Swiss companies are using celebrities to advertise their use of "alternative power sources", but what about packaging for shipping? After reading this blog, it made me wonder if the Swiss are more ecological regarding packaging as well. I agree with some of the other posts that packaging (from my experience, especially American packaging) is overused and unnecessary. It would be interesting to research whether the "greener" countries of the world use less packaging, or at least solely recyclable packaging.
More personally, I have found that my online orders typically are packaged to the point that they are difficult to open. How much cellophane tape can one person use? A cardboard box plastered with cellophane suddenly becomes a lot less environmentally friendly... And that's just the outside. The inside of the box is usually stuffed to its maximum with plastic polystyrene packing peanuts and the actually tiny, little item is tripled in size by layers of bubble wrap. Biodegradable packing peanuts do exist, but it seems many companies don't care enough to use them. All I know is that when I ship an item, I use recyclable packing products. I just wish big companies would get on the bandwagon as well.
Many of the stores I've found send huge cardboard boxes with only one or two items inside. Excess tape, bubble wrap, the whole nine yards it's kind of ridiculous. Can I just get to the shirt or shoes I bought! Like Alicia stated it varies from company to company. However, If I don't need the boxes for storage or to return items I always recycle them. Bubble wrap that can be recycled will be the next big thing!!
It's interesting that you mentioned the efforts that Amazon has been making since 2008 to become more eco-friendly with their packaging. I just ordered my textbooks from Amazon and was amazed each time by how large of a box they shipped my books in. Each box easily could have fit 3 of my books in it.
Yet I can't help but think that this really isn't a huge source of waste. The difference in the amount of cardboard used to create a 8"x10" box versus a 12"x14" box isn't that great. I'm certain that there are much larger sources of waste within the company that consumers are completely unaware of.
I never normally order clothing, or anything for that matter from offline, but the few times I have, I noticed that some of the packaging is recyclable, while others are not. It should be mandatory for all shipping and packaging companies to use the same type of materials that everyone can recycle. We are trying to make almost everything more Eco-friendly, so changing the packaging should be a new step. For instance, it is not necessary for companies to pack all of the tissue paper in a tiny box for one item, that is not even fragile. One piece of tissue paper is all anyone needs.
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