Larry Magid’s Eye on Tech segment about environmental cost of returns
I’m pretty conscious about my environmental footprint. I drive an electric car, try to save energy whenever possible and recycle and compost most of what I discard. But an article I just read on The Verge makes me realize that I also need to rethink my practice of returning things I buy.
As the article points out “Free returns come with an environmental cost.” Those packages don’t travel back to the e-tailer or warehouse on their own. They go in vehicles that consume fuel and as The Verge’s Justine Calma points out, each package “leaves a trail of emissions from the various trains, planes, and giant trucks that carry it back to the seller,” which contributes to climate change and other environmental problems. The article points out statistics from the National Retail Federation that “E-commerce has a higher return rate, 20 to 30 percent … compared to other kinds of purchases.”
Neither Calma nor I are saying that you shouldn’t return items that you don’t need or want, but we should all at least be thoughtful of the impact of what we buy and what we return. This means only buying things that you really think you’ll need and perhaps dong a bit more research before buying a gift. Calma urges companies to provide better information about products so people know what they’re ordering and find better ways to let people try things virtually before they buy them. And companies can use zero emission trucks for transport and delivery.
Read Calma’s post on The Verge