This Christmas we did a bit more online shopping than in past years. I noticed right away that Amazon has changed their packing materials to be more minimal and much easier to recycle. This got me curious about what has changed in the world of online shopping in terms of the waste it creates.
For Saskatchewan residents, understanding these hidden waste impacts is especially important. Our recycling and waste systems differ from those in provinces with larger populations, and not all materials generated by online shopping are easily recovered through local programs. What I learned was that although packaging has come a long way, new waste streams have popped up.
Over the past fifteen years, the packaging used for online orders has evolved significantly in response to the explosive growth and rising environmental concerns. In the early 2010s, many online purchases arrived in oversized corrugated boxes filled with void-fill plastics and single-use polystyrene simply because the priority was ensuring products survived long shipping journeys. As online shopping accelerated, particularly during and after the pandemic, retailers and logistics companies began adopting more optimized packaging systems that use right-sizing technology to produce custom-fitted mailers and boxes. At the same time, there has been a growing industry-wide push toward recyclable, biodegradable, and compostable materials.
Our own Amazon orders arrived in mailers different from even a couple of years ago. Gone are the silver and white soft mailers of questionable recyclability, replaced with clearly marked envelopes made of pure paper or pure plastic. Amazon now employs the How2Recycle labeling system to clarify what their packaging is made of and how to recycle it.
The changes aren’t quite as evident with smaller companies who aren’t shipping through a giant like Amazon. We ordered a few things directly from suppliers, which came with less-than-optimal packaging but were still a marked improvement over how they would have arrived a decade ago.
The improvements in packaging are obvious, but it is the returns that have become one of the least visible but most significant contributors to e-commerce waste. Online return rates are far higher than in-store purchases (in the U.S. 26.4% of online purchases are returned), particularly for clothing, footwear, and electronics, since you don’t have the benefit of trying on or handling the item first. This is amplified by the fact that online shopping is a quickly growing proportion of all sales.
For example we ordered a book set for our daughter online instead of hunting around for it in person. Unfortunately, we ordered the wrong set – which wouldn’t have happened in-store. Thankfully, Amazon has a streamlined return system that keeps shipping costs minimal. I do wonder if the set will be returned to stock since we took the cellophane off to find out they weren’t the right books. Amazon offered us most of our money back in exchange for the physical item being returned – so here’s hoping.
In contrast more and more retailers are offering “returnless refunds” to avoid the cost of return shipping and restocking the item. I’ve had this option a few times with Temu. When an item wasn’t wanted or useful as intended, I could just fill in a return request and get a refund up to a certain dollar value without actually sending anything back.
This creates a whole new stream of things that can become waste – products ordered but not wanted. I learned of a new term in online shopping called ‘Bracketing’ where people order a variety of sizes and colours of an item (usually clothing) with the intent to return most of it.
I did order a piece of clothing for my husband – but I made sure to check the size charts first – with the expectation that if it fit well, then we would order more in the future.
Given that online shopping is on the rise, fast fashion, inexpensive electronics and unreturned impulse purchases are waste streams that are going to need to be managed.
What shoppers can do
Consumers have more influence than they may realize. Small decisions can significantly reduce waste from online shopping:
- Consolidate orders to reduce multiple shipments
- Choose slower shipping options when available, allowing retailers to combine packages
- Avoid over-ordering with the intent to return
- Reuse packaging for returns or storage
- Follow local recycling rules carefully, especially for plastics and mixed materials
- Use SARCAN depots and approved drop-off locations for materials not accepted curbside
- Buy fewer, higher-quality items, particularly clothing, and donate usable textiles locally
Making the invisible visible
The waste generated by online shopping is largely hidden from view, but it has real consequences for Saskatchewan’s recycling systems and landfills. While policy changes and producer responsibility programs are moving in the right direction, meaningful progress depends on both better system design and more mindful consumer choices.
While it’s been nice to see improvements in packaging, I’m still going to keep my online shopping to a minimum.
