Online Ordering Equals Better Prices And Lots Of Cardboard

WhatInThe said:
Maybe those better online prices do come at a cost-pollution. Some saying significant increase in cardboard over the years. Also just a potentially damaging is the delivery trucks creating air pollution(along with putting more weight and wear on roads).

http://consumerist.com/2016/02/16/our-growing-e-commerce-addiction-means-mountains-of-cardboard/
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I think just as damaging to our roads & environment can be obtained from buying DIY projects from Walmart & Ikea. We have purchased a few storage cabinets & bookcases from Walmart or Ikea that come in cardboard containers. Not to mention the distribution centers located convienently all over the US. In my former state & location we were within shouting distance of a Walmart, Procter&Gamble, Pepsi, Coke & Shopko distribution centers. There were over 1,500 combined semis entering & leaving those centers 24/7 daily. Utah has a real polution problem coupled with the mountains & weather inversion trapping polution from those centers and the oil&gas refineries located north of Salt Lake City. I think that UPS & Fedex were minor compared to those offenders.
 
I think its a case of 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. Human shoppers drive cars to the malls using roads and gas, and plastic bags and packaging create tons of garbage, buying from a storefront doesn't eliminate cardboard. Fast food outlets where the shoppers create even more garbage are another problem.
 

What amazes me in this day and age is the amount of cardboard I see in people's trash in residential areas with recycling pick up available one or two days a week. Is it that hard to crush, tear, fold or cut cardboard to fit it into a recycling container? Or someone doesn't a have a space in their house where they can set large pieces of cardboard for a few days? People think if it's out of their sight it's out of everyone's mind. No, it's someone else's issue to deal with now.

Sidenote/observation on recycling, same issue with cans a bottles I see people fill their recycling containers to the brim with uncrushed cans and bottles devouring space and made highly susceptible to a wind gust tipping/spilling them
 
Cardboard is recyclable. Plastic bags are now, as well (in my state, anyway), as long as they are properly prepared - put all clean plastic bags into a clean plastic bag, tie that bag shut, and deposit it in your recycling container.

As to air pollution, when ordering online I recommend using sites that deliver your product from a local distributor. When ordering flowers, for example, most online orders will be sent from the nearest contracted florist. Walmart will also use your nearest store that has the item in stock.
 
FazeFour said:
Cardboard is recyclable. Plastic bags are now, as well (in my state, anyway), as long as they are properly prepared - put all clean plastic bags into a clean plastic bag, tie that bag shut, and deposit it in your recycling container.

As to air pollution, when ordering online I recommend using sites that deliver your product from a local distributor. When ordering flowers, for example, most online orders will be sent from the nearest contracted florist. Walmart will also use your nearest store that has the item in stock.
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No plastic bag recycling here but many stores offer or have bag recycling containers by their entrance. Some stores even have a dead battery recycling bin. I've been taking about a bag of recycled plastic bags a week to the supermarket when I go. Sometimes they build up and others every trip I slip a few in. And I shop many stores that don't give you a bag unless you pay so I reuse many of them.
 
My daughter is thinking of dropping her on-line shopping as the cardboard is getting ridiculous. Here in California we have 96 gallon blue cans to put recyclables in but it's still silly to put one clipboard in such packaging and then the 3 boxes of Shout she received today (Amazon delivers on Sunday) and took this photo and emailed it to me. Well, it won't let me load the clipboard photo but here is this one. IMG_0017(1).JPG
 
Linda said:
My daughter is thinking of dropping her on-line shopping as the cardboard is getting ridiculous. Here in California we have 96 gallon blue cans to put recyclables in but it's still silly to put one clipboard in such packaging and then the 3 boxes of Shout she received today (Amazon delivers on Sunday) and took this photo and emailed it to me. Well, it won't let me load the clipboard photo but here is this one. View attachment 27038
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Air bubble plastic, I would hope that's recyclable as well. Again I see people with the boxes from these types of orders out in their trash days, not weeks before their next recycling pick up. I'm surprised the county doesn't call them out on it.
 
I buy the fabric bags that the stores usually sell for about a $.
I take them into the store when I shop and they fill them with what I bought.

I haven't brought home a plastic bag for months !
 
Falcon said:
I buy the fabric bags that the stores usually sell for about a $.
I take them into the store when I shop and they fill them with what I bought.

I haven't brought home a plastic bag for months !
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I got into a habit of saving the paper grocery bags with handles because I just couldn't throw them out...too functional. I now take a handful of those with me when I go grocery shopping. A few years ago I suggested to my granddaughter that she start making cute fabric shopping bags, and sell them online. Still think it's a cool idea, but I wonder how much plastic and cardboard it would take to ship them :playful:
 
IMO, just because something can be recycled is no reason to overuse it. I think the excess packaging is wrong. Recycling picks up once a week here on garage pick up day and the cans are not wheeled out till the night before. We use pretty bags to carry our groceries out of the store. Then of course, we have to remember to put the empty bags back in the car for next time. Most of the Californians I know are using their own bags for groceries. I know my son and his wife in Sweden were doing it several years ago too.
 
I've been using the heavy duty reusable bags for grocery shopping for years. And in Scotland they put on a fee 5 pence per bag which has drastically reduced the number of plastic bags.

We have a recycle bin that gets picked up and also takes cardboard. Yes, Amazon will sometimes put a small item in a huge box, but my location makes it difficult not to buy online. I can always wait until I have a lot of items I can't buy in town and make a 1 1/2 hour trip to Glasgow. But I normally only do that for clothing.
 
I've actually thought of this, how much packaging with buying online. I don't buy things online that I can easily get in a store. I buy books on Amazon, I shop on Etsy. I buy some makeup and lotions from an online retailer.

I do keep my boxes and reuse. I'm never at a loss for packing materials when I send something. Honestly though, I'll probably never re-use all the bubble mailers I have.
 

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