3 minute read
Environmental Repercussions of Excessive Online Shopping
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Heavenly Chwang / Sustainability Unit
Online shopping has created much convenience in recent years, but often, the environmental impact is significant so before we hit the “Make Payment” button, we should stop and seriously rethink our habits.
l Our increased exposure to aggressive marketing, which often influences us and entices us to buy more, has led to a new consumption style, such as online shopping. l As online shopping rarely uses cash as a payment method, people are also less aware of their budgets when buying online, making them likely to buy more than they need. l Help to reduce the environmental impact of online purchases by changing online shopping behaviour instead. l 付費便利、送貨上門、虛擬支付的預算錯覺，都令網 上購物逐漸盛行，但大眾卻未必懂得理性消費。 l 拆開網購的產品時，不難發現商家常以多重的填充材 料過度包裝，但大多數包裝最終都不會被回收。以 2020 年為例，香港就產生了7.8億件網購包裝垃圾。 l 改變網上購物行為：購買更多本地產品、與朋友合併 訂單，減少送貨上門次數等，在享受服務和產品的同 時，盡力減低對環境的影響。
The size of the “consumer class” (ie. people who are able to buy more goods and services than satisfy their basic needs) will grow from 3.5 billion to 5.6 billion by 2030. This exponential growth will result in greater resource exploitation, more greenhouse gas emissions and worse pollution. Indeed, by 2050, the equivalent of three planets will be needed to satisfy current levels of consumption. They are unsustainable because we are overconsuming the planet’s resources.
In the past few decades, this overconsumption problem has become critical with the rapid internet penetration. Our increased exposure to aggressive marketing, which often influences us and entices us to buy more, has led to a new consumption style and online shopping is a new environmental challenge that we should be aware of.
Why would online shopping elicit negative impact to the environment?
Convenience
Online shopping has become the trend in recent years. With just one click, be it on our computers, mobiles or tablets, a purchase can be made. There are no time or venue restrictions and when people are exposed to all the goods and discount advertisements online, they are likely to be lured into unplanned purchases. The offer of free shipping over a certain amount also encourages consumers to add more items to fulfill the free delivery requirement. The convenience of online shopping not only highly increases the frequency of online purchasing, but also encourages impulse buying.
Moreover, according to some studies, when using virtual payment methods, transactions appear less real as consumers have the feeling that they are not really spending money. As online shopping rarely uses cash as a payment method, people are also less aware of their budgets when buying online, making them likely to buy more than they need.
High Return Rate
When making online purchases, people cannot physically check items before ordering, so it is common for them to return items which do not fit their expectations. Moreover, if free returns are offered, people may buy several sizes and colors of the same products, keep the one which fits and return the rest. These make the return rates of online shopping as high as 40%. Greater greenhouse gas emissions from transportation result and what’s even worse is that 20% of the online returns end up in landfills.
Excessive Packaging
Excess packaging is another major contributor to the environmental impact of online shopping. To protect products from damage during transport, online retailers often use excessive filler material such as inflatable plastic air bags, bubble wrap and cardboard to wrap the product. Most such packaging is not recycled at the end point. In 2020, 780 million pieces of online shopping packaging waste were produced in Hong Kong, and on average more than two pieces of packaging were used for each product. Moreover, adhesive tape which is not recyclable is widely used in the packaging of online shopping, making waste separation and recycling more difficult. Result? The excessive packaging of online shopping causes severe problems of municipal waste and wasted resources all over the world.
What should we do?
l Only buy the essentials l Buy more local products or products from neighbouring countries to reduce greenhouse gas emission in transportation l Consolidate orders with friends to reduce the number of home deliveries l Request minimal packaging if possible l Recycle packaging materials
You can help reduce the environmental impact of your purchases by changing your online shopping behaviour now!
Footnotes:
1. theworldcounts.com/challenges/planet-earth/state-of-the-planet/number-of-consumers 2. santarius.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Do-online-environments-promote-sufficiency-or-overconsumption-Journal-of-Consumer-Behavior-2020.pdf 3. earth.org/online-shopping-and-its-environmental-impact/ 4. emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/SJME-03-2018-007/full/pdf?title=impulse-buying-behaviour-an-online-offline-comparative-and-the-impact-of-social-media 5. trvst.world/sustainable-living/is-online-shopping-environmentally-sustainable/ 6. eco-age.com/resources/online-shopping-impact-on-environment/ 7. greensense.org.hk/en/2020/05/%E7%B6%B2%E4%B8%8A%E8%B3%BC%E7%89%A9%E5%8C%85%E8%A3%9D%E8%AA%BF%E6%9F%A52020/
