E-commerce sales are on the rise, not that businesses couldn’t already tell.
In 2016, $360.3 billion dollars were spent on e-commerce products in the United States. By 2021, those sales figures are expected to jump to $603.4 billion, according to Statista.
But the massive influx of e-commerce sales does, however, have a downside, one environmentally minded businesses should really keep in mind.
As Michael Zabaneh, CEO of North American sustainability and resource management company Reclay StewardEdge Inc, has pointed out, e-commerce sales growth means a massive increase in packaging waste.
All of those e-commerce orders need to be shipped in something, and corrugated cardboard is the industry standard.
Unfortunately, old corrugated cardboard (OCC) boxes tend to be thrown into the trash right after an e-commerce package is opened, only to find its way into a landfill, never used again.
Waste management is already a serious issue in North America and if the impact of e-commerce isn’t addressed, the situation will only get worse as landfills grow ever larger with OCC materials.
Retailers need to find a solution right at the beginning of the cycle, as soon as a retail item is packaged, because there is a way to directly mitigate the environmental impact of e-commerce: use recycled cardboard.
That’s where Rebox comes in.
Rebox collects OCC materials from manufacturers, later selling those same boxes to online retailers. Then an e-commerce distributor, like Amazon, uses those recycled corrugated cardboard boxes for their products.
With Rebox in the mix, your business’s products would come in a recycled and repurposed cardboard box.
And that’s far from a bad thing. By extending the lifespan of OCC materials, Rebox is reducing the negative environmental impacts of e-commerce sales.
Plus, that takes the onus off of retailers. Packaging goods in already-repurposed materials makes a company’s online sales inherently more environmentally friendly.
Less cardboard goes into landfills while e-commerce sales continue to rise, meaning you don’t need to stress about your carbon footprint getting too big when you’re perusing online.