Have you ever ordered a small product online only to have it arrive in a huge box filled with plastic padding? If so, you’re not alone! A campaign, launched by nonprofit Habits of Waste, seeks to get major online retailers to change this wasteful practice and reduce packaging waste.
Wasteful Packaging From Online Retailers
A recent study by Oceana found that in 2019 alone, Amazon generated 465 million pounds of plastic packaging waste. The number of plastic air pillows could circle the globe 500 times! If we continue at this rate, we can expect more plastics than fish in the ocean by 2050.
Amazon ships about 1.6 million packages per day. Walmart is right behind them. While Amazon has made changes — and Walmart has plans to make changes — to wasteful packaging habits, it still is not uncommon to get overpackaged deliveries. Yet most of the items consumers order online are pre-packaged. And many of these require no additional boxes or plastic to ship them safely.
#ShipNaked Campaign To Reduce Packaging Waste
The #ShipNaked campaign by Habits of Waste wants to hold online shopping giants accountable for packaging waste. We are asking Amazon, Target, and Walmart to ship their products with the absolute minimum packaging necessary. This simple change would immediately reduce millions of tons of waste.
Both Amazon and Walmart set the bar for all other retailers on everything from logistics to customer service and innovation. If Amazon and Walmart take responsibility for reducing unnecessary packaging, other companies are likely to follow their lead.
Let Online Retailers Know You’re Onboard
Send a 1-click email to convince Amazon, Walmart, and Target to ship their products naked. With just one click you can send pre-written emails to these companies requesting that they eliminate unnecessary packaging.
#ShowUsYourPackage! Next time your Amazon package comes with too much packaging, take a photo, share it on social, tag the company, and suggest they #ShipNaked to put some pressure on them. After all, their goal is to keep customers happy so let’s stir up some noise. Let’s get these online shopping giants onboard to reduce their packaging waste.
Learn about another campaign by Habits of Waste: #CutOutCutlery.
About the Author
Sheila Michail Morovati is the president and founder of nonprofits Habits of Waste and Crayon Collection. She spearheaded the historic ban of plastic straws, utensils, and stirrers in the City of Malibu and has been featured in Forbes, LA Times, HuffPost, and various regional broadcasts. Learn more at crayoncollection.org and habitsofwaste.org.