With the advent of online Monday, it is one of the busiest online shopping hours of the year. But usually, your quotation comes with some expenses you don’t pay: various packaging, some are recyclable and some are not. The ubiquitous packaging products, such as bubbles, sewage, foam polystyrene and plastic bags, can not be recycled. They will be transported to landfills. Every year, hundreds of millions of tons of refuse that we deal with in the United States are generated by them. Avoiding these unsustainable materials is harder than it should be, so let’s do something.

Simple actions to reduce packaging.

In a recent article on MBG, Celine jennison, an environmental activist and educator who studies marine garbage in remote areas of the world, raised a simple question: if you order things online, please send an email and ask the supplier not to use plastic packaging. Interestingly, I contacted Celine to see if she was lucky with this method. She explained that she still receives plastic packaging, especially in Amazon orders, but this is not common.

Out of curiosity – and a little embarrassed, I didn’t want to do this before – I sent an email to Amazon customer service (CS -) as follows:

“Hello, I am writing to see if you can enter a note in my account, which says I want to receive brown paper packing (Zero plastic or plastic or foam polystyrene) as far as possible. I like Amazon’s ease of use, but I’m disappointed at how much unnecessary plastic packaging I sometimes receive. Thank you! ”

Within a few hours, I returned a note saying that my request had been forwarded to the appropriate team. For more specific information, I sent the same email to Jeff Bezos himself (or at least his address published in public) and received similar responses. The next day, I tested the service and ordered a book. I was disappointed when she arrived in a cardboard box with a plastic foam wrapped flame. The two emails I came back said it would take some time to process my request, so I’ll cross my fingers next time.

I heard that another part of the email I saw from Amazon is at the bottom: “your feedback helped us build the most customer-oriented company on earth.” This reminds people that if enough people express their contempt for plastic packaging, the company will feel pressure to make changes. Their livelihood depends on customer satisfaction.

Since 2009, Amazon has received 33 million comments on its packaging from users. Although it is not perfect, the system has been established in response. Now there is a carefree packaging page, which you can browse to find items with reasonable and recyclable gift box packaging. So before you press the unsubscribe button today, copy and paste my message above and replace Amazon with any retail store you buy.

Press the long-term habit after sending.

Of course, sending e-mail is not the only way to reduce packaging waste. Be sure to deliver your items together as much as possible and bring materials without edges to the disposal site（ Find someone near you here.) Until the day minimalist die cut box packaging becomes the rule, follow and send all mail using kraft paper, paper tape and reusable boxes. If you receive a lot of mail at work, please consider updating your email footer and asking people to pay attention to your packaging when sending mail. This is an example to get you started: buying and supporting small producers locally is another way to reduce the impact, but the first thing you can do to become a more conscious consumer is to buy less. As the festival approaches, you can consider giving experiential gifts or donations instead of gifts.