Is Shopping Online Unsustainable? The Impact of Shipping
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- Опубликовано: 19 дек 2019
- Is ordering products online vs. shopping locally more sustainable? And how can you reduce the impact of shipping?
This video is kindly sponsored by noissue who makes compostable mailers and packaging! (www.noissue.ca/)
Clothing Creates Plastic Waste: mygreencloset.com/clothing-po...
How to Order Clothes that Fit: • How to Properly Measur...
Psychology of Shopping & Why we Love Fast Fashion: • Why it's SO HARD to St...
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Hi! My name is Verena but most people call me Erin (my middle name). I studied Fashion Design & Technology and it was through this I became aware of and passionate about sustainable and ethical issues in the fashion industry. On this channel I share my journey to live more consciously and create videos to help you build a wardrobe that reflects both your style and values. 🌎
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Хобби
Guys
My boyfriend bought his first thrift store item last week :D
Im getting him on board about being more conscious about our environment and the things we can do to help our Earth
Im not perfect and dont buy 100% sustainably but im taking baby steps
:)
When there is the option, I often choose to let the package arrive at the postal office/a postal point. That way I can make sure I can get my package when I have time, and it saves the drive to my house :)
This is a question I’ve been wrestling with for AGES. Consider my mind blown 🤯
I never would have assumed that you can order online sustainably.
I love buying from Etsy and have had awesome luck asking for less packaging/no plastic/recycled packaging from Individual stores.
Also a pro-tip is that you can filter Etsy results by location. I first filter by state, then by country to reduce shipping. Occasionally I do ship internationally, but it is VERY rare.
All of my favorite items are from Etsy and the best gifts I’ve given as well. I like supporting small business and getting something more unique!
I know your hair is in the "growing out" stage but I want to say I love it at it's current length. :-)
Thanks!!
Hi, I personally don't like shopping online, so never do it, unless it is a last resort. I like going to a shop and physically touch and buy the items myself.
I actually have loved that you haven't put out much lately, you have a baby! And she needs a lot from you, so don't push yourself too hard. 🥰 Also, meant to say before, yay for doing EC!! My husband and I started about 2 weeks after our daughter was born but I wish we had started straight away, I've realized her early fussiness was because she needed to eliminate (it synced up with those times). Also also, The Continuum Concept has been a real eye opener of a book for me, it seems to line up with EC 'concepts' too.. I'm not sure how to say it better. 🤔 Anyway, great video! Always so much to think about when making a purchase.
I'll have to look into that book!
Great video! I like trying clothes on but if I know a brand’s sizing I feel confident ordering online. I used to order a lot from ASOS before I quit fast fashion. The problem with companies like them is that many of their products never looked as good as in their photos, and sizing was always funny too which resulted in a lot of returns.
Living in this part of Canada I do end up online shop a bit because I want to support smaller businesses offering great sustainable products and if I cannot find it here I order it online. (But likewise I try to support this businesses locally too.) One of the areas where I think Edmonton really is lacking is in fabric selection so often I order fabrics & yarns online from small businesses, but Canadian small businesses do not always have good shipping options, so I often have to make sure to order a bigger order more rarely due to the shipping costs. It’s way easier to place a lot of orders if you do not have to pay shipping!
Ugh yes, the fabric options here are not good.
I love how you tackle about these complex issues - pointing out all the various factors and why the situation is complex but also offering things to think about to make a decision despite all that. It can be so hard to approach (or maybe it's that it seems less glamorous than other aspects of sustainability) that I think a lot of people prefer to ignore these topics altogether.
I was thinking about this a lot recently though because where I live, I tend to take the train or drive into the city centre to get to the main shops and I always think that if it's something I would need to drive for (maybe what I'm going to get is too big/awkward to carry on the train), it might be better if I order it because the postman/woman is making the rounds anyway and it gets my extra car off the road?
Great video!
Thanks!! I'm really glad you appreciate it 😊
There is so rarely a clear cut good/bad choice and that makes it very difficult to feel confident in our decisions (also talking about these topics I've definitely noticed people seem to prefer to have things laid out as good/bad which makes it challenging to talk about the complexity of issues). I think it's very human to want to be "right" so having no definitive right & wrong perspective generally makes us uncomfortable and so is easier to ignore? 🤷♀️
Anyways, the research I've found does seem to show that if you are driving to pick up an item it is actually better to order it and let the post van drive instead. :)
@@MyGreenCloset Yeah I can imagine for most people having a clear "good" and "bad" is preferable, but I actually find it somewhat less stressful in a way to know that things are more complex. It means that there are probably so many opportunities to make the system better and there are that many more ways for us to find solutions that fit our various ways of living. It also makes me remember that we can only ever do our best with the information we have.
What an awesome and well-researched video! Thanks for doing this for your viewers!
Love your channel!! I have been thinking about this very issue lately, thank you!
Loving this breakdown and all the tips! Keep up the great work :)
Thank you so much for this video! I've always have this dilema between shopping online sustainable products or actually going to the store to buy conventional ones. This happens a lot with garmets, or some specific hygiene products.
I am glad to see that I already follow the vast mayority of the tips you've mentioned in the video. Regardless it's important for me to always be alert enough not to make unnecessary or rushed purchases.
By the way, do not worry about posting less videos, your content characterizes for its quality and furthermore you've got a baby! Wish you a very happy, sustainable Christmas!
such a good video! I think that is a huge issue and it is really hard to know what actually happens with your clothes before they come to you. I just had a very sad experience when I realized that a product I orderes which was made in Italy (don´t know about where the fabric was made) was trasported over the coean by plane to me living in Germany just because the brand is based on the US west cost. Such an unneccessary shipping way.... Of course it was a very sustainable and ethical brand and I love the products even if it was very hard to find the correct size because they had different and mixed infomation about it. I will make sure to kkep them until they fall apart but still very sad I haven´t realized this crazy journey
Great video! I try not to buy much of anything. If I do buy, I like to support local and sustainable brands. Here in Montreal we are quite spoiled! FYI I think slow vlogs are a good thing. There are too many videos out there. I’d rather wait for good content like yours! Merry Christmas!! Enjoy your first Christmas with your daughter! Warm hugs from Montreal
Thank you so much! 💚
I seldom shop online, mostly because I don't want to buy things that need to be shipped to me from another continent. When I see stuff I want from those places (every time a look on web shops I look up where they are based and manufactured, so I have an idea how long way they will be shipped if I buy something), I try to find similar things from brands that are based nearer me if possible. Sometimes I also make things myself when the only shopping option seems not that sustainable.
Most things I order online are books and skincare. Here in Finland there is a local skincare brand (Dermosil) that have a eco-certified line of products that I use, and they don't have a physical store. I appreciate that they only package in paper and cardboard (even if the bottles themselves are made of plastic, but plastic recycling are evolving, at least here in Finland).
I never order clothes online, just because I can't know for sure if they will fit me. Online shopping would be on the other hand be the only real option for me to order sustainably made clothes. But I avoid the problem of what is more eco friendly by only buying clothes nowadays second hand. Besides underwear, which I still buy in normal stores because that's the only option that I know of here. I want to buy that sustainably when I need it, but then the fear of the garments not fitting me when they arrive, make me put it off...
The only time I have ordered something from far away, was this summer when I ordered some clothing patterns that I really wanted and only could find in the US. Otherwise I shop online only from my own or neighbouring countries and I really Think it over Before I buy something. Over all, I buy really, really seldom online.
Hey, What are the eco-friendly Non-Profit Organizations in Germany?
Thanks in advance 😊
thanks for this, I'm always conflicted ! do I buy good quality things from sustainable brands I know I will love for years online or do I buy a subpar product that isn't exactly what I wanted just because it's easily accessible ? we pretty much only have H&M and Zara where I live and I don't want to support brands I don't believe in either. I think they do more damage to the environment than all of my online shopping lol
I agree, they definitely do way more harm!
Thanks for a lot of useful info. I'm a little concerned about the biodegradable plastics though. In Germany where I live industrial composting facilities are very common and they actively discourage using it. It almost always does NOT degrade in these facilities due to weak requirements on what can be called compostable. They remove it, often by hand, and have to send it to a waste incinerator which makes their services more expensive. Since bioplastics often are more energy intensive to make, can use up land area, and cannot be recycled either it is a bad option. They encourage using petroleum based plastic (and recycling it after use) if you have to use plastic and skipping packaging altogether otherwise (which is obviously preferable). So do not use bioplastic if you are not sure what you are doing, that is find out whether it is really compostable in your specific situation. This info btw is from my local garbage disposal services and thus I'm pretty sure it's correct.
In my opinion this is not worth the hassle for such a minute (potential) sustainability benefit. If this is a hobby for you, go for it. If your goal is to actually make an impact for the environment efficiently, do something else like get LED lighting, drive less, insulate (parts of) you home, get a low flow showerhead, buy second hand, reduce stand by power consumption, ... you get the idea.
A lot of bioplastics aren't actually compostable and I have another video where I talk about this, however these specific bags are designed to break down in a home compost so there are no issues with industrial composting.
I think anything we can do to reduce our impact is worth doing!
@@MyGreenCloset you indeed have to start somewhere. And who knows, one day the biodegradable option may also be the energy efficient one. So I guess you can consider buying it now as an investment to encourage development in this area. Solar panels used to be not worthwhile and now they are great because people went for it. Really looking forward to more videos like this one!
I only do online shopping if I'm gonna buy something that doesn't available in physical store and if I gonna go to physical store I do walk so yah I'm trying to save money and waste. Ps. I only buy things I need
God please give this woman a TV show
Is amazon pretty good for shipping?
If you can avoid Amazon its always better to support small businesses.
My Green Closet ok! Thank you!!
Amazon is a large online shopping company and users 608,000,000 (Six hundred & eight million) cardboard boxes very year, according to a report released by Sanford C. Bernstein. That is a lot of boxes. Where do they get these boxes from? Do they come from recycled cardboard, or are trees felled to produce that many boxes? A lot of fossil fuel is burnt to produce 608,000,000 boxes. A lot of fossil fuel is burnt to produce the items they sell online. Most people buy things online they don’t really need. Then there is fossil fuel burnt to deliver the millions of items. I, and millions of others, believe that Amazon and all the other online shopping
companies are polluting giants that should be decapitated.