Nearly half of retailers offer free return shipping to their customers, making it easier than ever to send back clothes that don’t fit. But what happens to these garments after you send them back?
- You head online for some retail therapy. You’ve never tried this new brand, so you aren’t sure what size to order. Luckily, they offer free returns! Might as well order both sizes and send back whichever doesn’t fit…
- Nothing is more exciting than delivery day! You try on both to see which fits, pack up the other in a cardboard box or a single-use plastic shipping envelope, and send it back. So easy, and now, you don’t even have to think about it!
- Meanwhile, your return garment is en route back to the retailer. By truck, ship, or plane, it has to get back to its original destination. Of course, this is not without environmental costs- the carbon emissions of your purchase have now been doubled. According to The Verge, returning items results in over 15 million tons of CO2 each year.
- Now that your garment has made its way back to the retailer, something needs to be done with it. Once you’ve torn open that protective plastic bag to try it on, it can no longer be easily resold. Instead, the garment must be steam-cleaned before being placed in another plastic bag.
- And if the garment can’t be resold at all? Well, something else needs to be done with it. Many returned items end up in a landfill or even an incinerator, along with the packaging waste it took for your garment to get to you and back to the retailer. All this leads to nearly 5 billion pounds worth of waste each year.
The ease and convenience of free returns often allows us to forget the hidden costs of our decisions. Yet, these choices can have a devastating impact on our planet.
