Packaging Waste from E-Commerce: Consumers’ Awareness and Concern

Abstract

Online shopping, a form of electronic commerce (e-commerce), is a type of business where buyers and sellers interact electronically (using the Internet channel) for the exchange of goods and services and payments of the transaction. E-commerce offers positive environmental effects, for example, greenhouse gas emission reduction due to reduced traveling needs by individual consumers, and other energy use in traditional brick-and-mortar shops. However, online shopping is not entirely free from negative environmental impacts. Packaging waste from ecommerce is one of such concerns. A typical e-commerce parcel may use up to seven types of packaging materials: paper bills, envelopes, cardboard box, plastic bags, woven bags, tape, and buffer materials (bubble wrap, styrofoam). Environmental impacts of online shopping can be categorized into first-order (information and communication technology equipment usage), second-order (changing of processes and markets affecting the logistics system for product fulfillment and delivery), and third-order (rebound) effects. Thai e-commerce market is advancing to become one of Asia’s top performers. According to the Electronic Transactions Development Agency, the value of the Thai e-commerce market in 2016 was expected to reach 2,523.99 billion Baht. At present, Lazada is a popular business-to-consumer e-commerce company inThailand.Asurvey conducted to identify consumers’ awareness and willingness to reduce environmental impacts of online shopping revealed that a 13.8% of the respondents had never purchased anything via the online channel, citing lack of opportunity to touch/feel the product, and fear of deception being the reasons. Of the online shoppers (86.2%), only 11.8% felt that the product arrived with an ‘excessive’ packaging, and they, however, simply discard those packaging materials. In order to transform e-commerce into Green commerce, companies need to invest in packaging innovation and sustainable supply chain mechanisms including reverse logistics system to promote reuse and recycling, while consumers also need to display sustainable consumption behavior.