Environmental costs of Online deliveries
by Voolla Eswar Gokul
As the world is slowly realizing the dangers of climate change and depletion of resources- reduction of carbon footprint, recycle and reuse of resources have become important goals whether for individuals or businesses. However, a concern with plastic pollution in general and Single-use plastic (SUP) in specific is a wide concern in making a leap towards sustainability.
India generates 9.46 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, of which 40 per cent remains uncollected and 43 per cent is used for packaging, most of which is single-use, a study conducted by Un-Plastic Collective (UPC) revealed. Despite efforts to increase recycling, most of the plastic still ends up in landfills or in the water. Putting it in context, this piece attempts to nuance how the growing use of SUP in packaging emerging from e-commerce platforms affects the environment negatively.
We love buying food, groceries, and goods with a single tap from the e-commerce platforms. In an ideal world, shopping online might have been a safer alternative than making individual visits to the restaurant/supermarket to have food or purchase groceries/goods. However, we do not live in an ideal world, but in a world in which profit and consumerism are widespread. We don’t behave in a sensible way — and retailers don’t allow us to behave.
There’s also something magical about the thought of searching the world of merchandise online, picking what we want and getting it to our house, often in a matter of hours. Like never before, we’re shopping more online now. But to what extent are we aware of the consequences these online purchases have for the environment?
Our rapidly rising delivery culture is a concern. “It is more convenient to go online and purchase wide-ranging products cheaply. They could arrive at our homes at little to no cost.” But are we conscious of the mountains of packaging waste generated by these online deliveries and millions of transport miles travelled? Retailers pack the purchased product in an oversized box to ensure they don’t move around wrapping the items in multiple layers of plastic sheets and plastic bubble wraps and thereafter fill the large empty spaces in the boxes with additional sheets of SUP. All the plastic used in the packaging is thrown away in garbage once the product is delivered, ending up at landfill sites, leading to a burden on the earth and damaging the environment. SUP is cheap, ubiquitous, useful and at the same time very deadly. The fact that it’s non-biodegradable and is recycled in very small percentages means that our planet with passage of time is becoming a large dumping ground for single-use plastic, which breaks down into smaller fragments known as microplastics and then contaminates soil and water. SUP therefore is emerging as one of the biggest environmental challenge for our planet.
On the other side, we eventually started wanting our goods shipped and delivered on the same day, which means that products are coming in fewer and smaller numbers. We’ve got trucks running all over the place making single deliveries. The idea of free’ delivery, which is a marketing point for retailers, is not always free in terms of what it costs them and what it costs environment.” People often purchase items, particularly clothing, with an option to return the order, resulting in more carriage and more mileage. “The new e-commerce platforms-Amazon, Flipkart don’t penalise their customers for returning orders though.
Online food delivery platforms such as Swiggy, Zomato have influenced the way urban middle class India eats and distorted their food habits in significant ways. The ease of ordering food online through these apps, fast delivery, a wide variety of cuisines to suit every pocket and taste ranging from single to multi serve, have all made these platforms highly popular, not just with the younger generation, but even the elderly! But on the flipside, this delivery system has raised two serious concerns- while one is of the quality and safety of food delivered, the other is the plastic waste generated by them.
It’s not just food that we order gets delivered but we get cutlery, plastic bags and boxes along with food thereby creating an environmental mess. According to an industry estimate, all food delivery aggregators put together processed roughly about 40 million orders a month, generating nearly 22,000 metric tonnes of plastic waste. The issue of plastic waste from online food orders has not yet gotten enough attention that it deserves from the authorities, restaurants, or even consumers.
As these online platforms expand and enter newer regions, the number of consumers who use online delivery services will only increase. Given the rising popularity of these platforms, the demand will predictably grow at a faster pace, and so also the heaps of plastic debris generated by these orders.
As per provisions 9(2) of the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, “Primary responsibility for collection of used multi-layered plastic sachet or pouches or packaging is of producers, importers and brand owners who introduce the products in the market. E-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart must meet their EPR extended producer responsibility (EPR) under the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016 and need to establish a system for collecting back the plastic waste generated due to the packaging of their products.’’
Unless the rules are complied and other alternates such as eco-friendly packages are thought about, we will not be in a position to tackle the problem. Consumer demand for packing materials made from natural fibres will also make a difference.
Moreover, we as consumers should be more patient and therefore retailers have to consolidate orders into one delivery at a time. Choosing the product to be picked up at a nearby collection point while one goes out on work would make a difference rather than having them delivered to each of our doorstep. More such alternatives have to come into play with a consciousness of the plastic debris caused by SUP in the online deliveries only then can we reduce the looming crisis.
