Cardboard and Coronavirus (Craig Douglass On Consumers)

Is it on the box or in the box? The virus, that is. While the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is primarily transmitted by respiratory droplets, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reports that the virus “can survive for a short period on some surfaces” but is unlikely to be spread from domestic or international packages.

Good to know, since cardboard shipping boxes appear at my door several times a week. This relatively new reality is not the result of thinking outside the box, but rather thinking what could be in the box. Remembering what was ordered from Amazon, Dillard’s or Walmart is sometimes a challenge, and many times a surprise. “Oh boy! Wonder what that is?”

Online shopping has been increasing ever since the first iteration of direct business-to-consumer shopping created in 1979 by Michael Aldrich, a British enterpriser. Aldrich’s system incorporated a modified television set connected to a computer via a telephone line. (This was before the WorldWideWeb.) Through server-and-browser interactive technology, today’s internet, more real-time and secure transactions were made possible. Amazon and eBay were launched in 1994. You know the story from there.

Shopping online is one thing. Inventorying, or matching orders with warehoused retailers and shipping are quite another. And the medium, the connective fiber for this ethereal compact is a corrugated container: the cardboard box.

Point-and-click commerce, growing even faster during the quarantine, means more and more cardboard is being consumed by shippers and shippees alike. In fact, e-commerce trackers report that “despite online sales growing slower in July than in June, sales are still up 55% year over year” through July, resulting in $434.5 billion in online spending. Online sales for this year are expected to match last year’s total sales by this October, well before the traditional holiday season. Cardboard mania!

But here’s the deal. As convenient as online shopping is, as commodious as picking up a small box from the front step rather than stepping into a big box seems to be, all the cardboard created by this service of accommodation is, if not disposed of appropriately, contributing to environmental unease.

The University of Washington’s Supply Chain & Transportation Center director suggests, “While the ease-of-use makes online shopping more enticing, all the extra deliveries and logistics can have hidden environmental costs. It’s contributing significantly to our carbon footprint. And those are problems.”

To meet the demand of delivering to consumers and businesses goods bought online, the corrugated box industry has seen an average 5% increase over the past two years, and is “exploding,” as described by the aforecited Supply Chain and Transportation Center.

From an environmental standpoint, cardboard, as it breaks down in landfills, contributes to global warming leading to climate change. This occurs as decomposing cardboard releases methane. Methane impacts the environment over 20 times more than carbon dioxide. Recycling cardboard, however, to make new fiber-based products reduces greenhouse gases.

In addition, our urban roads and streets are seeing more congestion from delivery vehicles. In fact, Federal Express projects the number of packages delivered in the U.S. to double by 2026, to 100 million per day, with 90% coming from deliveries created by online shopping.

Consumers reciprocate convenience. And with the societal challenges coming from our recent health-related crisis due to the coronavirus and COVID-19, business and industry have recognized an opportunity to change the way they connect the dots of product, price, promotion and place. The consumer opportunity in response is to place multiple rather than single orders online, and recycle the cardboard packaging arriving at the door. To fully complete the transaction and close the loop, cardboard recycling is essential.

We are advised by private-sector vendors who collect our curbside recyclables to break down the cardboard so that it will fit inside the curbside cart. Or, if dropped off at a recycling center, to flatten and stack the cardboard before dropping it off.

Consumer activists recognize consumer responsibility. Just as with the virus, consumers are encouraged to practice informed awareness, action, social concern and environmental knowledge.

Craig Douglass serves as executive director of the Regional Recycling & Waste Reduction District in Pulaski County.