How is e-commerce packaging waste an issue, and what can be done?

E-commerce packaging vs. traditional retailer packaging

And there may be a bigger problem. Smaller shipments like those that are typical for direct-to-consumer sales require more padding or filler to protect the contents as they travel through a longer supply chain with more handling of the cartons.

Products that are typically shipped in cases and pallets of goods from the supplier to the retailer are designed for efficient packaging and don't require much, if any, filler. Different-sized individual items put into a box by an e-tailer often require more filler. Much of the plastic foam, packing peanuts, organic fiber material and other e-commerce packaging waste ends up in the landfill. Switching from plastic to biodegradable organics is certainly a step in the right direction, but only a small step.

Manufacturers, e-tailers and consumers must continue to find ways to decrease the amount of packaging and filler material used.

Let's look at the sustainability pyramid for help in prioritizing actions: Manufacturers, online retailers and consumers must continue to find ways to decrease the amount of packaging and filler material used. Consumers can reuse packaging for their outgoing shipments, including returns to the supplier, storage in the home and other creative uses that keep the materials out of the waste stream. Producers should continue the transition to recyclable materials, if they haven't already, to satisfy the recycle portion of the process, and should emphasize the use of biodegradables when and where possible.

Using the carrot approach

Equally important, consumers must be incented to reuse and recycle packaging materials. HP is a good example of early success.

For years, toner cartridges for laser printers have been shipped to stores and direct to consumers in corrugated cartons that are reusable for returning the spent cartridge to HP for recycling. The box includes a return label, enabling the consumer to simply drop the used cartridge in its shipping box at any UPS location for post-paid return.

A small startup in Finland called RePack offers a program through several clothing companies where online shoppers pay a small deposit and get reimbursed after the bag or box finds its way back to the company via any post office in Europe, with a 95% return rate.

Burgeoning innovation in reducing e-commerce packaging waste

Other examples of innovative recycling solutions include Dell, which has reduced its box sizes by about 10% and developed bamboo cushioning -- a fast-growing material that can be composted or recycled as paper -- to replace foam, and which also began making packaging with wheat straw, which is produced from agricultural waste and mushrooms.

Simply recycling, however, is not the real answer, as the increased volume of packaging materials in the supply chain means more does end up in the landfill at the end of the day. And recycling itself has its own environmental impact on transportation, water usage, energy consumption and so on.