With online shopping increasing year after year, the so-called “Amazon effect” is having a real impact on waste flow. The California Product Stewardship Council’s Heidi Sanborn and Recology's Robert Reed recently appeared on NBC Nightly News to discuss the phenomenon and what cities like San Francisco are doing to combat it.
NBC Nightly News highlights challenges that cities like San Francisco and their waste hauler Recology have due to the increase in our mail order lifestyle, often called the Amazon Effect. Robert Reed from Recology shares how mail order purchasing has quickly changed the waste stream requiring changes to their waste processing system and Heidi Sanborn from CPSC offers to help companies reduce their packaging waste while encouraging consumers to tell the companies that they want less packaging in the first place.
“We ask that the companies who are mail order companies work on reducing their packaging waste, but we’re also asking the consumers to be thoughtful and to tell companies, ‘Hey, I don’t want all this waste. I want to buy products that are in reduced or reusable packaging,’ ” said Sanborn.
Consumers are doing just that. Companies like Amazon are also doing their part. Meanwhile, in San Francisco, a major upgrade to Recology’s equipment is underway to keep up with the massive influx of cardboard.
As city and county leaders look for solutions to deal with the mounting new source of trash, it is necessary to also look at the other end of the supply chain and ask companies to be more responsible in how they make, and of course ship, their products. CalPSC.org has more information on several products filling up landfills and ideas on how to stem the flow.
Watch the feature here.