How bad is the environmental impact of shipping/delivery?
I've recently started trying to improve my environmental impact, so I apologize for what might be a very basic question, but how bad is it to have items shipped/delivered to you, rather than picking them up from a store near you?
I'm specifically interested in two situations:
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If I'm buying a specialty, zero-waste product that's not available in stores nearby, which is worse: having it delivered directly to my house, or having to drive a good distance in my own car to get it? Are the two roughly comparable, or is one considerably worse than the other?
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I use a service called PaperBackSwap that is sort of like a big, distributed, online used bookstore. You give away books from your collection to people who request them, and for each book you send out you can request one to be sent to you. I like that it's putting books in the hands of people who specifically want them (as opposed to donating them or selling them to a used bookstore where they might be shelved indefinitely or pulped), but now I'm sitting here wondering how bad it is for that single hardcover of mine to travel halfway across the country. On the other hand, the book is getting reused, potentially multiple times if it then gets requested by others after that. Should I be considering this good reuse, or a waste of resources?
Outside of those two, I'd welcome any primers on the topic at large, as well as any best practices with consumer goods that I can start putting into place. I've already done a lot to find plastic-free alternatives to a lot of what I use, but I don't know if I'm trading one ill for another by getting them from places that have to send them from hundreds of miles away.
It's unlikely that the delivery drivers weren't already transporting something else from each delivery hub, they make their daily rounds regardless because of the sheer volume of deliveries. They probably only go out of their way to deliver to your doorstep in a small region that a single driver covers, which would likely have several deliveries fairly nearby. So unless you are able to walk or bike or retrieve the item from the nearest town or city to you, you wouldn't be saving much of any environmental impact.
About the only thing you can do is purchase more in bulk whenever possible instead of several small quantities being delivered separately. You can also opt for free delivery or everything all at once in some cases. Expedited deliveries will generally create more out of the way drive time to meet schedules.
This makes a lot of sense, and is very helpful. Thank you.
Not an expert but here are my biases:
Ground shipping is apparently very efficient. (Particularly by rail or by sea, but large trucks are pretty good too.) This is why there can be products in stores from all over the world and they don't cost very much.
You probably want to avoid shipping things by air, if you can.
Notice that less efficient shipping costs more. Looking for low-cost shipping will help.
Amazon Prime hides the cost from you, but I would guess that if it's next-day delivery then it's coming from a warehouse nearby. (You could also see what they charge without it.)
It seems very likely that shipping a book uses more resources than downloading it.
I have a pretty strong bias in favor of ebooks, so I really only use PBS for books I can't get in ebook form or that aren't suited for an eink device (e.g. graphic novels).
Truth be told, it's probably very low, assuming you don't (frequently) use next day or two day delivery by air. Ground transportation networks have been super optimized for efficiency, and most common forms of bulk transportation (train, boat, and even truck) scale extremely well. You probably save vastly greater amounts of emissions by cutting back on meat, supporting politicians that support combating climate change, and support protecting natural parks and nature areas than you will have by cutting back on ground shipping.
I began composting all my amazon shipping boxes recently. Not only am I reducing the waste in my trash/recycling, I am creating great compost that will help me grow food. It's really not much extra work. I remove all shipping labels, tear up and shred the boxes, then throw it in my composter. Amazon uses compostable tape, so no worries there.
Not doable for apartment dwellers, but if you have the space, I highly recommend the process.