It’s almost that time of year again when friends and families come together to share in the joyful season, exchange gifts, enjoy holiday festivities and food, and cherish moments spent with the ones you love. It’s a time to show the ones you love how much you appreciate them. However, as the holidays become more about gift-giving rather than being with friends and family, the demand for online shopping rapidly increases adding to further consumerism. Though the convenience, speed, and lower prices of e-commerce make last-minute shopping easier, it’s the environment that ultimately bears the cost of these consumer choices.

Online shopping, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, has rapidly grown and is driven by giants such as Amazon and Walmart. These companies have completely transformed e-commerce and monopolized on consumers’ expectations of fast, convenient, and free shipping. In June 2020, global e-commerce sales reached a new peak of 22 billion monthly visits, equating to $26.7 trillion in sales. This new peak of online shopping perfectly describes the effects of speed, competitive pricing, and convenience on consumer demand.

However, to meet these expectations created by big corporations, the environment must bear the cost. The packaging and shipping of goods heavily contributes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and plastic waste. In 2020, the transportation and return of products accounted for 37% of total GHG emissions in the e-commerce sector.

The packaging that is used is a major component of these emissions. The majority of items that you order online are wrapped in multiple layers of plastic and cardboard to ensure a safe delivery to your doorstep. The forest conservation group Canopy reports that approximately 3 billion trees are pulped each year to produce 241 million tons of shipping cartons. This scale of deforestation depletes natural carbon sinks and creates an enormous amount of waste. Also, less than 15% of this packaging is recycled! This means that it directly ends up in landfills adding to an already pressing issue for the environment.

So, what can you do as an individual consumer? You can start by consolidating online orders into a single order, get ahead of the holiday season, and order gifts early and through slower shipping methods instead of same-day delivery. You can also limit the amount of returns as this contributes significantly to GHG emissions. Or, you can support local stores. Lastly, when you are all done using the cardboard boxes, come by Recycle Utah to recycle your boxes. Recycle Utah also re-sells moving boxes and packaging materials (cardboard boxes, packing peanuts, and bubble wrap). By making mindful choices this holiday season, you can celebrate sustainably, reducing your environmental impact while still spreading joy to those you love.

By Elly Swartz