Plastic-Free Online Shopping: Practical Ways to Cut Packaging
, by Hello Charlie Blogs, 2 min reading time
Online shopping can save travel and make low-waste products easier to find, but every order also has a packaging and delivery footprint. The goal is not a perfectly plastic-free parcel. It is to avoid unnecessary purchases and packaging while making requests retailers can realistically fulfil.
Quick answer: consolidate orders, choose durable products, ask for minimal plastic-free packaging before checkout, avoid unnecessary express delivery and reuse or correctly recycle what arrives.
Begin with the purchase, not the parcel
Packaging is only one part of an item’s impact. Before ordering, check whether you can repair, borrow, buy locally or buy second-hand. Compare durability, spare parts, refill availability and end-of-life options. A poorly made “plastic-free” product that is replaced quickly is not necessarily the better choice.
Consolidate deliveries
Keep a list and combine items into fewer orders where practical. Select grouped delivery if offered and avoid splitting an order solely for speed. Express fulfilment can reduce opportunities for efficient routing, although the exact footprint depends on the retailer and carrier.
Do not add items you do not need merely to reach free shipping. The lowest-waste parcel is the one not ordered.
Ask a specific packaging question
“Is your packaging sustainable?” invites a vague answer. Ask:
- Will this order contain plastic mailers, bubble wrap or foam?
- Can you ship it in reused or recycled-content cardboard?
- Is paper tape available?
- Can multiple items be packed together?
- How should each packaging component be disposed of in Australia?
Make the request before the warehouse packs the order. A checkout note is useful, but contact customer service for an important requirement.
Paper is not impact-free
Cardboard is widely recyclable, but virgin fibre, oversized boxes and single-use paper fillers still use resources. Reused packaging can look less polished while avoiding new material. Compostable mailers also require the stated conditions; do not put them in kerbside recycling unless local guidance says so.
Understand common claims
- Recyclable: check whether your local service accepts the specific item.
- Recycled content: look for a percentage and whether it is post-consumer.
- Biodegradable: ask under what conditions and time frame.
- Compostable: distinguish home from industrial composting.
- Carbon neutral: look for the boundary, calculation method, reductions and role of offsets.
What to do when the parcel arrives
- Open carefully so mailers and boxes can be reused.
- Remove tape and labels if your local recycler requires it.
- Flatten cardboard and keep it dry.
- Check current specialist programs for soft plastics—never assume an old drop-off still operates.
- Give useful packaging to a local seller, school or moving group rather than storing it indefinitely.
Use Plastic Free July as a starting point
Plastic Free July encourages achievable changes that continue beyond one month. Choose one online-shopping habit—such as consolidated orders or a reusable-packaging request—and measure whether it reduces your actual bin contents.
Hello Charlie explains its own approach in the Sustainable Packaging policy and offers reusable options in Plastic Less Essentials.