The Climate Impact of Convenience Culture

When you think of online shopping, Amazon is likely to come to mind. That's because Amazon excels in the key aspects of online shopping: price, speed, and convenience.

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Seeing Amazon's success, competitors and small retailers are copying its strategy, offering discounted products you can order with a few clicks and have delivered to your door within hours or a day.

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But this convenience comes with a significant environmental cost.

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Environmental impact of online shopping

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Most online products come wrapped in plastic and packed in shipping cartons. Single-use plastic, made from fossil fuels, is hardly recycled and usually ends up in landfills. To produce cardboard cartons, billions of trees are chopped down every year.

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Research shows that online shopping has a lower shipping footprint compared to traditional shopping, but the stats change when you factor in fast shipping. Same-day and instant deliveries force retailers to send out half-filled trucks and vans, increasing emissions and congestion.

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By 2030, the number of delivery vehicles will increase by 36%, reaching around 7.2 million. This will add about 6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions and increase commute times by 21% due to heavier traffic.

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Easy and free returns further add to the waste and emissions problem. Retailers offer it because consumers demand it. One study shows that 79% of consumers want free return shipping, and 92% are more likely to buy again if they can easily return items.

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We are seeing similar patterns in other industries, such as food delivery, where convenience is worsening the climate crisis.

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Food delivery apps make it easy to order from your favorite restaurants. However, the food often comes packed in single-use plastic and brown paper bags. While brown paper bags create less litter compared to plastic, they generate more emissions than plastic.

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What can we do as consumers?

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We know giving up convenience is tough. But we can take small, slightly inconvenient steps that are better for the planet:

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• The 24-hour rule: Leave the item in your online shopping cart for a day before making a decision.
• Borrow instead of buying: Before you buy new products, consider exploring borrowing options such as Buy Nothing groups.
• Avoid items you're likely to return: This will reduce waste and save you the trouble of return logistics.
• Shop secondhand first: Look for secondhand items in online marketplaces and thrift stores.
• Combine your orders: Consolidate your orders instead of making multiple small purchases.

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