Spike in Packages Impacts Mailroom Staff, Environment

Continued from page 11

Environmental Impacts

Increased online ordering also makes an environmental impact. For one, increased plastic pollution has reached the forefront of many environmental activists’ minds, who are concerned that packaging like plastic film surrounding products, bubble wrap, and exterior packaging will contribute to further plastic pollution. Plastic waste produces threats to soil, air, and water systems and can cause direct damage to wildlife and human health. The waste also releases tiny fragments of material, called microplastics, that can take hundreds or thousands of years to break down, along with toxic chemicals in the production and disposal processes.

While many may view cardboard and plastic as easily recyclable materials, plastic packaging waste has the lowest recycling rate among recyclable materials, with only 9 percent of all plastic waste being recycled. The vast majority of plastic waste either goes to landfills, is incinerated (releasing toxic chemicals), or directly pollutes the environment. Apart from packaging materials making up a large portion of the associated environmental impacts of online ordering, greenhouse gas emissions are closely tied to online shopping. The integration of rush deliveries and even same-day shipping has drastically impacted the environment. Companies need to expend vast amounts of resources and energy fulfilling rushed orders, reducing the perceived efficiency of online ordering in the first place.

The Prevalence of Amazon

Of the packages that students order, Amazon takes a large share. Amazon orders made up nearly a third of all packages arriving for students on campus in 2021, and currently make up nearly a quarter of all packages. Kells recounted seeing three Amazon vans waiting in line at once to deliver all of the packages students ordered one morning. This phenomenon would have been extremely out of the ordinary 10 years ago — now, this quantity of packages has become the norm.

Gold remarked that since the post office was not designed for packages in the first place, “well, it obviously wasn’t designed for Amazon … The space just doesn’t have the capacity or the system to han- dle the volume of packages.”

Amazon is notorious for its varied negative environmental and social impacts. The non-profit Oceana recently estimated that Amazon’s plastic packaging waste in 2020 “would circle the Earth more than 600 times.” Not to mention that Amazon workers have re- ported “grueling” conditions, with low pay, minimal time off, and intense and tiring shifts, and that Amazon’s business model hurts small, local businesses who are struggling even more during the pandemic.

Moving Forward

Already in mid-February of 2023, Amherst students have collectively received nearly 10,000 packages. This number suggests no sign of online shopping subsiding among Amherst students anytime soon. As we gradually return to a more “normal” version of college life post-pandemic, we have a chance as a school community to reflect on the impacts of online shopping.

To mitigate negative impacts on the environment, Office of Sustainability EcoRep Izzy Perozek ’25 suggested “[buying] secondhand or [trading] clothes with friends instead of buying brand new.” Apart from forgoing buying new items in the first place, Perozek said that one big way Amherst students can limit the impact of buying new items is simply “shopping at the Hampshire mall” or other local stores. The associated environmental impact is much smaller for in-person “brick-and-mortar” shopping in comparison with online ordering.

The New York Times also suggests grouping your purchases — especially from places like Amazon that tend to send multiple items in many different packages — to limit the amount of packaging and skip out on rushed shipping. In addition, choosing slower delivery options dramatically reduces your package’s carbon footprint. Perozek added that “If you have to order online, [try] doing it with your friends so it only ships once.”

Lastly, Kells shared that students often leave packages in the mailroom for days — sometimes even weeks — on end before picking them up, which places an added strain on already limited mailroom space.

The next time you get a notification from the post office telling you a package has arrived, consider picking up your packages as quickly as possible to aid post office staff in their processing operations. Gold emphasized that she hopes “people appreciate the hard work that [Don, Bobby, and Chris] do … it’s a more difficult job than you might expect.”