A meme on social media showing a tearful woman with a caption that reads “I get more Amazon boxes in a week than I can fit in my recycle bin” sums up the problem with packaging in 2021.
The growth of ecommerce since the start of the Covid crisis – online sales in the UK during the first quarter of this year were 54% higher than the total for Q1 2020, according to research by Adobe – has heightened concerns about packaging waste.
On the one hand, online shoppers complain about excessive packaging. On the other, a purchase that arrives damaged, needing to be returned and replaced, will have a far bigger environmental impact.