Cutting Down E-Commerce Packaging Waste

Presentation given at the Twenty-eighth International Conference on Learning 2021, Jagiellonian University. This project is an overview of data-driven research conducted by design students from the US and India. Due to widespread expansion of the internet, it has set a precedent in online shopping. The rapid growth of e-commerce is the basis of different, positive as well as negative impacts on the environment. Just last year e-commerce in the US grew 44.0% alone. Pam Baker said in an article “E-commerce packaging waste becoming a bigger issue”. Today the challenge of packaging waste is not only limited to the US but also became a major global challenge. A thorough research study showed a recycle bin weekly overflows compare to the food waste which only occupies 30% to 40% area of the bin. This comparison study shows how e-commerce has impacted waste disposal from every household in the US. With the growing concerns about the environmental impact, that has been created due to online shopping which inculcates harmful plastics/packaging waste that blights our land and seas. The cutting down e-commerce packaging project was designed keeping in mind the practical, habitual, and physiological challenges that the consumer face in terms of procuring goods. The feasibility of prototypes and user testing was a major part of the project procedures. The design teams had experimented with various innovations to create sustainable packaging to reduce the impact of harmful plastics on the environment and proposed a new e-commerce packaging that was frictionless and effortless for the consumers to be engaged