By Beatrice Tridimas
We’ve all done it, right? I know grandparents who have done it. Who still do it. Even my mum does it, and she can’t work an android phone let alone the internet. Modern consumers pretty much rely on it.
1.8 billion people purchase online worldwide. That’s more than the entire population of China scrolling, clicking, PayPaling, getting out credit cards, using Apple Pay.
But while we’re sat cosy in our PJs with laptop open and credit card in hand, around 92 million tonnes of textile waste is created globally each year.
It’s not like for every 10 things we order we’re chucking out 7… but actually isn’t it?
Online shopping achieves popularity in a culture defined by constant, unnecessary consumption. Buying just because ASOS have a 20% off code and free delivery. Buying 4 things instead of 1 because why not, it’s only coming in the same trip anyway.
A Greenpeace survey found that being exposed to influencers and social media is the main motivation for over-consumption. Kinda makes sense: indulging in a bath and a glass of wine with candles can be justified by thinking people get paid to do it on Instagram. And the same goes for purchases. Amelia Liana shops, so it’s legit for me to do it too, right?
And the quest to make every moment in life materially fulfilling is made so much easier by the fact that we are constantly using our phones, constantly scrolling. What starts as a five minute Instagram break can spiral into a two hour shopping hole.
Connecting apps like Facebook messenger or Snapchat to Apple Pay facilitates buying – even if it is just sharing money between friends or second hand on Facebook Marketplace. The idea of consuming is pretty much everywhere we look online. It’s normalised to the degree that it’s not normal.
Considering the amount we shop, it’s unsurprising that the fashion industry consumes more energy than the aviation and shipping industries combined, especially with the added emissions of the distribution, packaging and returns of online items.
But what is the real impact of ordering clothes online?
Shipping
Shipping is essential to the fashion industry throughout the entirety of its manufacturing processes, distribution and retail. Those Nike Air Max 270 have to come from somewhere.
Shipping remains the most carbon efficient transport for imports and exports despite that ships can use more than 110 tonnes of fuel oil per day (hmm…efficient?). Importing raw materials accounts for only 2% of the climate-change impacts of the industry, but when goods are ready to be sold they are also trucked across countries, flown over the channel and shifted from warehouse to store weekly.
And then they’re passed on to couriers, to the Royal Mail, to your local drop off point, to your, or your neighbour’s door.
A report conducted by the University of Delaware in 2016 suggests that online shopping and delivery actually increases carbon emissions from road travel because delivery drivers are taking constant and frequent trips, adding more cars on the road and creating more traffic in town centres.
Plus, things like next-day delivery, re-delivery and returns don’t do us any favours.
Well more and more companies, including Amazon, are opting to invest in electric delivery vans. This isn’t going to stop over-consumption, but it might lower the carbon emissions attached to it.
Or, innovatively, H&M has introduced delivery by bicycle in Amsterdam. Yes, that’s right – Deliveroo for clothes!
Packaging
How many times does opening a recent order feel like a game of pass-the-parcel? The outer plastic, the inner plastic, the protective tissue (two-ply if you’re lucky), cardboard – it’s like a competition of how many different materials you can squeeze into one bag.
Packaging seems to be the target of many ecological initiatives. Perhaps, because it’s often so blatantly unnecessary that the solution in many cases is easy – simply forget it.
But in the complex chain of garment distribution and manufacture, it can seem necessary. Moving from place to place, clothes are easily damaged. It makes more sense for protective packaging to end up in landfill rather than brand new t-shirts made dirty in transportation.
Some of the biggest online retailers use recyclable packaging, but there is no guarantee that it is recycled correctly, or that it even makes it to the recycling centre in the first place. At least it demonstrates some effort to prevent plastic, which takes thousands of years to biodegrade, from going to landfill.
Online retailers are being more innovative with their shipping packaging nowadays, using compostable parcel bags or canvas bags for inner protection. The Better Packaging Company is also working with brands globally to improve their packaging, whilst the EU have implemented The Packaging Waste Directive which aims to recylce 60% of all packaging by 2025.
Returns
I’ve mentioned how returning items add carbon emissions in terms of transportation. But what really happens when we return clothes?
Rather than spend the time, money and resources on assessing, washing and repackaging items, many brands simply throw returned items to landfill.
Yep, that’s right. If you don’t like – you might as well chuck it!
It’s thought that 5 billion pounds of waste is generated through returns annually, adding 15 million metric tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. And, surprise, surprise, online sales have the highest return rate in apparel, the US National Retail Federation estimating that up to 30% of items bought online will then be returned.
Is there a solution?
Technology. New software from tech company, Optoro, is designed to help companies resell excess or returned items more easily. And that’s not the only option – other software includes virtual fitting rooms or size scanners that help make buying online more accurate.
It’s not hard to see that online shopping isn’t environmentally ideal.
Because it’s not that simple, and it’s never that easy. Could we really all just get on with life when we can no longer last-minute-next-day-deliver a dress for the party we forgot (or ignored until now)?
Probably?
Fine, so that doesn’t seem to be the end of the world. But my point is, online shopping is such a part of modern life, we can’t simply just stop. It’s a symbol of progress and modernity – there’s no going back. I certainly would struggle at times without it. Jeff Besos would even more so.
But do we need to use it to such extremes?
Being sustainable doesn’t mean we should regress or give up the privileges of modern life. Not at all. (In fact, often sustainability is the privilege).
Being sustainable is about INNOVATING, acting CONSCIOUSLY, being aware of the decadence and excess of modern life.
And when it comes to online shopping, I do not suggest that we just give it up completely (although I do challenge you to go Amazon Prime free for a month and see how well you can do without – it’ll be life changing, I promise). But I ask you to think: do I really need to order this item? Do I really need it to arrive by tomorrow? Can I not find anything at all that I already own?
And if you must buy – find out where it’s coming from, how is it getting to you, what happens if you return it?
Start asking questions. When you get the answers, it’s up to you what you do with them.
Beatrice Tridimas
Beatrice is an ethicist and book-lover, pursuing her passion for writing at KeiSei whilst studying for a masters degree at UCL. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh earlier this year.
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