Paper or Plastic?

Let’s talk about box baby. Let’s talk about you and me. Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be. Let’s talk about box-----es.

The rise of e-commerce has so many benefits. Running low on shampoo? Put some in your digital Target cart while it’s top of mind. Weather looks nice next weekend? Find the perfect picnic blanket on Amazon. How are everyones brows so good on Insta? Oh, Boy Brow. Ordering immediately. And best of all, lounge in your coziest jammies and order that gorgeous gown to wear during gala season.

Before you know it your front door is blocked by a pile of brown cardboard boxes. And it makes some sense, you ordered from four different retailers. It gets especially annoying when you place one order with Amazon and two days later three boxes arrive making you wonder why everything wasn’t just packed into one.

Consumers continue to shift their spend to online, the proof is in the pudding — online retail grew 16% in 2017, while retail in general rose only 3.8%. After all, who doesn’t love time saving convenience? But how many people stop to think about the environmental impact of that change?

Roughly 165 billion packages are shipped annually, amounting to approximately 1 billion trees cut down each year. Yes, Axe, billion. Amazon recently realized they had a shipping problem, but not for the reasons you may think. They decided that if they came up with a smaller package option, they would be able to fit more parcels on a truck, thus reducing the amount of air they transport. So no, it pains us to tell you that Amazon’s changes weren’t made thanks to the 30 million photos they’ve received from customers showing a tube of toothpaste being shipped in a box meant for a toaster oven. Over the last year Amazon has started shipping its smaller items in plastic mailers. So yes, while they may be better size suited than the boxes, we circle back to the plastic problem.

These new plastic mailers are not recyclable in your normal recycling container. They need to be separated just like plastic bags. This type of plastic is not sortable in most recycling systems, and when a bag or mailer does get caught up in the machinery, it gums it up, requiring the whole system to shut down to cut it out. Not efficient.

We can credit Amazon for reducing its carbon footprint since they can ship more within one truck or plane. We are also thrilled with their $10 million donation to the Closed Loop Fund. But they need to continue to improve their methods of consolidating shipments, and making it easier for consumers to do so.

Meanwhile, since you are still receiving shipments form Amazon and Moda, please continue to keep your future rentals in mind and reuse these boxes. The majority are still in perfect condition and should live more than one life.

Let’s talk about box baby. Let’s talk about you and me. Let’s talk about how easy it is for you to send your rental to me in a box you’ve already received, then let’s talk about all the good feelings that may bring.