We are just over one year of quarantine for Canadians due to COVID-19. While lockdown was lifted in many jurisdictions, it has been reinstated in many others. The snow has receded to reveal green for the first time in months and more and more Canadians are getting vaccinated. Things have changed and online consumer buying habits are no exception - Amazon and other online retailer packages will grace doorsteps and post-boxes across the world in ever increasing numbers. Amazon delivered more than four billion packages in 2020 and shows no sign of slowing down.
While rates of immunization continue to climb and promise of the return to normal seems closer than ever, the return to normal does not include a universal surge back to stores. Instead, consumers are accustomed to the convenience and comfort of shopping online while retailers enjoy the reduced overhead and staffing costs associated with flagship stores.
By 2025, Amazon is anticipated to deliver more than 7 to 9 billion packages a year! That is equivalent to each person in the world ordering at least one package from Amazon, and to facilitate this, Amazon has ordered 100,000 electric custom delivery vans. This will help to coincide with the Amazon Climate Pledge aiming to be zero net carbon by 2040. With more than 12 million products available in one place and same day delivery, it’s hard to find a reason to complain, except when you open the package.
Many customers report feeling “eco-guilt” when ordering online, a phenomenon that entails high levels of shame and guilt associated with high ecological impact of a purchase, when they rip the plastic envelope or have to dig through layers of plastic to even find their product amid the packaging. This phenomenon is not only a personal dilemma but a call for corporate responsibility in the wake of environmental crisis.
A movement has been rising that demands Amazon, and other distributors, to find more ecologically sound methods of sending their deliveries to their worldwide membership, which includes recyclable paperboard products, including corrugated cardboard and chipboard packaging. While Amazon currently offers this kind of packaging for 750,000 of their products when you order with “Frustration Free Packaging”, it falls drastically short considering millions of their products continue to fill landfills instead of being recycled for future purchases and packaging.
While Frustration Free Packaging is available on some products and customers are invited to express their ecologically conscious shipping preference for their shipments to Amazon’s Customer Service Department, customers are frustrated that the burden of environmental responsibility is being placed on them when they want responsible and recyclable packaging to be a guarantee with each online purchase.
If you’re an online shopper, we encourage you to do your part by pushing online (and bricks and mortar) retailers to use size appropriate boxes or envelopes and to utilize chipboard or corrugated packaging which is made from 100% recycled materials.
If you’re an online (or bricks and mortar) retailer, we encourage you to do your part by using appropriate size boxes or envelopes and to utilize chipboard or corrugated packaging which is made from 100% recycled materials instead of non eco-friendly plastic alternatives. There’s nothing more important to consumers these days than dealing with companies that share their values, especially to younger generations of customers who are increasingly putting value on helping the environment.
Hammond Paper
Operating out of Vaughan, Ontario, Hammond Paper Company has been a reliable source for environmentally friendly paperboard and protective packaging solutions in Canada for over 25 years. We believe that everyone should do what they can to protecting the environment and our fragile ecosystem.
Whether you need custom cardboard, other paperboard products or packaging, or just off-the-shelf protective packaging supplies like slip sheets, dividers, layer pads, corner posts or even pallet wrap, Hammond Paper can help in an environmentally sustainable way.
Contact us anytime at (905) 761-6867 or info@hammondpaper.com to talk about how we can help you, and the planet.