by Joanne PoonShopping online is a global purchasing trend as it is convenient. But behind this handy trend has arisen an enormous environmental problem.
The Current Situation in Taiwan In 2016, KPMG, one of the largest international accounting firms, did an overview about E-commerce in the Asia Pacific region. According to the report, Taiwan’s current online shopping population accounts for 86.1%, ranking 17th in the world and Asia’s largest. It is attributed to Taiwan’s network and transportation system, which are exhaustive. Besides, E-commerce is timeless and spaceless, as consumers can purchase all they want without any limits. Ease of comparison is one of the characteristics that attract shoppers to shop online, they can compare the offering and pricing which save their time. But see from another perspective, is online shopping really impeccable? The Problems Caused Tang Jianxiong, an old clothes recycler, mentions that about 72,000 tons of old clothes are discarded every year in Taiwan. At a rate of 3.2 pieces per kilogram, about 230.4 million pieces, which is equivalent to 438 pieces of clothing is thrown away every minute. Since buying clothes online is too convenient and the prices may be much cheaper than buying in brick-and-mortar buildings, impulse shopping is more likely. This fashion trash finally grows into the burden of the earth. Besides, garbage is generated during the logistic processes. When people purchase overseas, especially from mainland China, the shops and the logistics company will overpackage the commodities to protect them. According to the Taiwan Environmental Information Centre, in 2015 the total length of tape used by the Chinese express industry was approximately 17 billion meters, enough to circumnavigate the Earth’s equator 425 times. And about 9.9 billion containers were consumed in the same period, and nearly 8.3 billion plastic bags were used. According to Xing Kai, the chairman of a Beijing logistic company Yiside, sealing a box requires an average of 1.1-1.5 meters of tape, and the misuse of tape caused the reuse rate of express boxes to be only about 20% in 2015. Although Taiwan is an environmentally friendly place with high recycling rate, the boxes and the tape cannot be recycled under this situation. How Can We Fix the Problem? In recent years, many companies have discovered the problems created by online shopping and try to deal with it. For example, Decathlon, a French sportswear brand and one of the largest in Taiwan, pack things banana-style rather than in layers. Banana-style means putting all the things in one plastic bag. For example, when customers buy ten products, other shops will pack it with separate parcels, but Decathlon will only use one. Some people may complain about it because the clothes may become wrinkled, but the CEO said that they are sharing their environmental protection concept to the public. Apart from the above, individuals can do something to reduce the waste after receiving their parcels. For example, shops use a lot of plastic bags which we can reuse. Besides, if we want to send fragile goods, we can also use buffer material. This can cut down on the waste produced. We cannot stop people buying from the Internet because it does simplify our life, but the trash created does damage our planet. We should aim to strike a balance between them in order to save the planet. a
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May 2024
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