For shopping sprees sans plastic excess

For shopping sprees sans plastic excess

As Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm, Snapdeal and other e-commerce firms plunge into mega shopping festivals, they delight consumers, but also ruin the environment, with careless overuse of packaging material and no thought to recycling. e-Commerce companies pack goods in oversized boxes, swaddled in single use plastic blown up into different kinds of air-filled cushioning, all of which go straight into the waste bin and further on into landfills. It aggravates an environmental crisis, and is resource inefficient, besides.

The e-commerce packaging industry was estimated to be worth $32 billion in 2015 and conservatively projected to grow to $73 billion by 2020. There is no formal assessment of the share of plastic but given the use of multiple layers of plastic, thermocol, bubble wrap, air packets and masking tape used, the share of plastic is considerable. Packaging is one of the main drivers of the growth of the plastics industry in India. Minimising damage to products in transit is a legitimate objective. But wholly non-fragile goods made of, say, cloth also get as much cushioning as a piece of China. Why, pray? Why should the same company deliver three different orders in three different packets, delivered by three different delivery vehicles? Is it so hard to tweak their algorithms to consolidate packing and delivery? Why not offer to take back the cartons and packaging material, for recycling, if not reuse? Given its commercial success, the e-commerce sector must now focus on sustainability.

This is also an opportunity for innovation. Minimising plastic packaging will slash hydrocarbon use, and the import bill, as well as emissions. If India is to fulfil its pledge of becoming single-use plastic-free by 2022, the e-commerce sector must play its part. It can play a stellar role.