[Ididntdothis]

I agree. Packaging needs to be much more expensive. Online ordering makes things much worse. Now goods are packed in 3 or 4 layers which then get thrown away quickly.

[Scoundreller]

I find it funny how amazon will ship in a box or padded envelope, while random Chinese sellers on AliExpress will use something slightly thicker than cellophane.

[tomp]

But box is just paper, which literally grows on trees.

[maccard]

And water, and energy. A lot of both.

[tomp]

Energy is free. Sun's light is either hitting plants (that use it to grow) or it's hitting the ground.

Is water a big problem, in e.g. Europe? No idea honestly... it's obviously 100% recyclable, but it might be in the wrong place at the wrong time...

[rtkwe]

It does consume nutrients from the soil which would need to be replenished eventually on tree farm plots.

[maccard]

> Now goods are packed in 3 or 4 layers which then get thrown away quickly.

Just so you konw, this isn't new with online shopping. All of that packaging is thrown away by the retailer if you buy it from a store.

[rtkwe]

Not nearly as much. Items would be shipped on pallets to stores generally or come in larger numbers in a bigger box.

[maccard]

I worked in retail about 10 years ago, in a "Mom and pop" Computer store. We would receive hard drives in their retail boxes, with a plastic bag, a cardboard sleeve, and then another box around 10 or so, all wrapped in plastic. I would assume that before they got to me, those boxes were sent on pallets which were also shrink wrapped.

We would throw all that away before a customer ever saw it.