You order a single lipstick or a USB drive and a few days later, something the size of a shoebox lands on your doorstep, stuffed with air cushions. Opening it feels like an unboxing gone wrong, equal parts absurd and frustrating. Somewhere along the way, as online shopping became the norm, the importance of right-sized packaging got lost. Discover the hidden environmental costs of the phenomenon, why it happens and what businesses and consumers can do to fix it.
The Primary Waste — Cardboard
Corrugated cardboard is the backbone of e-commerce shipping. It is sturdy, relatively lightweight and widely recyclable. But it is not impact-free.
Producing it requires trees for pulp, along with significant amounts of water and energy for processing and manufacturing. According to a 2024 study, $4 billion worth of paper and cardboard went to landfills in 2019. The associated embodied energy loss amounts to almost one-tenth of the annual power budget of the entire U.S. industrial sector.
But Isn’t Most Cardboard Recycled?
In 2024, around 69% to 74% of cardboard was recycled, an improvement from 38% in 2019. However, it’s important to note that recycling is not a magic reset button. The process itself consumes water and energy, and fibers degrade each time they are reprocessed, eventually requiring new virgin fiber additions to retain strength.
Contamination adds another complication. Greasy pizza boxes, wet paperboard or mixed-in nonrecyclable matter can render an entire batch unsuitable for recycling — meaning material that might have had a second life instead ends up in a landfill.
Using a larger-than-necessary box means using more fiber, more energy in production, and more resources in recycling or disposal. Multiply that by millions of shipments per day, and the scale of overuse becomes clear.
The Secondary Waste — Void Fill
Void fill is what stops products from rattling around in a too-large box. It exists purely to close the gaps right-sized packaging would avoid.
Plastic Air Pillows and Bubble Wrap
These common choices are lightweight and effective at cushioning. However, most are made of polyethylene derived from fossil fuels, consuming valuable resources, energy and water.
While some plastic film can be recycled through store drop-off programs, it is rarely accepted in curbside recycling bins. Just 13% of plastic packaging is recycled nationwide. The vast majority of air pillows and bubble wrap sheets therefore end up in landfills. Over time, they can fragment into microplastics that persist in soil and water.
Packing Peanuts
Expanded polystyrene, commonly known as Styrofoam or packing peanuts, presents even greater challenges. It is lightweight and shock-absorbing, but notoriously difficult to recycle.
Most municipal recycling programs do not accept it. It can break apart easily, contributing to litter and microplastic pollution. Because expanded polystyrene is largely derived from petroleum and is not biodegradable, it has a significant environmental footprint.
Paper and Other Fillers
Paper-based void fill — such as crumpled kraft paper — is often viewed as the greener option. It is typically recyclable and sometimes made from recycled content.
However, even paper void fill represents an inefficient use of resources when it exists solely to compensate for an oversized box. In sustainability, reducing consumption has a greater impact than recycling after the fact, which is meant to be a last resort. The importance of right-sized packaging is that it addresses the problem upstream, before extra materials are ever produced.
The Domino Effect — How “Shipping Air” Wastes Energy
Oversized boxes do more than just waste materials. They also waste space, which translates directly into energy and emissions.
Inefficiency on the Road
Imagine a delivery truck that could hold 1,000 properly sized packages. If each box is larger than necessary, it might only fit 600 oversized ones. The rest of the space is filled with air. To deliver the same number of orders, you therefore need extra trucks, meaning greater fuel consumption, increased traffic congestion and further greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), transportation is the biggest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions — accounting for about 28% of the country’s total. With so much at stake, even small efficiency improvements can make a meaningful difference.
Yet when companies “ship air,” they amplify the environmental cost of each delivery. Right-sizing boxes can improve truck utilization, allowing more products to move per trip and reducing emissions per item delivered.
Warehousing and Logistics
The impact begins even before a package leaves the warehouse. Larger boxes require extra storage space, leading to bigger buildings. Lighting vast interiors, powering automated packing systems and maintaining climate control all consume electricity and raise operational energy use.
In a supply chain moving billions of items annually, small inefficiencies quickly multiply. A few extra inches per box can translate into thousands of additional square feet of storage across a network of facilities.
Why Does This Happen? The Commercial Reasons Behind the Big Box
If oversized boxing is so inefficient, you may be wondering why it’s so common. There are several commercial reasons.
The One-Size-Fits-All Dilemma
For large retailers, simplicity means speed. Stocking a limited number of standard boxes can streamline operations. Managing dozens of sizes would require storage space and inventory tracking. From an operational standpoint, fewer options reduce complexity and cost.
Protecting the Product
No company wants damaged products arriving on the doorstep. To avoid breakage, businesses may err on the side of using larger boxes with ample cushioning. In some cases, oversized boxes serve as safety nets for products that lack durable primary packaging.
Automated Systems and Human Error
Many fulfillment centers rely on automated systems. If the optimal box size is temporarily out of stock, the system may default to the next larger option.
Human packers, often working under intense pressure, may prioritize speed over precision. When hundreds of orders must be processed per hour, the most convenient box often wins.
These small, routine decisions add up to systemic over-packaging across the industry.
The Environmental Arguments in Favor of the Status Quo
It’s important to recognize that the industry is not promoting oversized boxes or claiming that waste doesn’t matter. There are two key arguments suggesting the status quo may, in some ways, be more sustainable than alternatives.
Preventing Product Damage and Returns
This concept argues that the sustainability cost of a damaged and returned product is almost always higher than the cost of the packaging used to prevent it. When a product is damaged in transit, a cascade of negative environmental impacts occurs:
- Manufacturing waste: The embodied energy, water and raw materials that went into creating the original product are completely lost.
- Disposal: The broken item must be disposed of. This is especially problematic for electronics or complex goods, which contribute to e-waste and are difficult to recycle.
- Doubled manufacturing footprint: A brand-new replacement product must be made, consuming a second round of energy, water and raw materials.
- Doubled shipping footprint: The damaged item has to be sent back to the seller and the replacement shipped to the consumer. This doubles transportation emissions, fuel consumption and associated packaging for a single sale.
From this perspective, using an extra layer of bubble wrap or a larger, sturdier box can be seen as a form of environmental insurance. The incremental damage of the extra packing is considered a necessary trade-off to prevent the sustainability costs of a failed delivery.
The “Lesser of Two Evils” Material Choice
Not all materials are created equal. The most critical factor in transportation emissions is weight. Plastic air pillows and bubble wrap, while problematic, are mostly air and incredibly lightweight. A greener alternative, such as custom-molded pulp or thick paper wadding, would increase the weight.
The argument is that shipping one million packages with plastic void fill consumes less fuel and generates fewer carbon emissions than sending the same packages with a heavier alternative. In this view, it is another trade-off — accepting the plastic waste problem to reduce the potentially larger transportation emissions problem.
Is There a Path to Smarter Shipping?
Despite good-faith arguments in its favor, most people feel oversized boxing has gone too far. Reinforcing the importance of right-sized packaging requires action from both businesses and consumers.
For Businesses — Embracing Efficiency
Some companies are investing in systems that measure products and create custom-sized boxes on demand. These machines cut and crease corrugated cardboard to fit each order precisely, minimizing empty space. There is no need for void fillers of any kind, plastic or green, and no weight increase.
Software tools can also analyze order data and recommend optimal box assortments. By aligning packaging more closely with product dimensions, businesses can reduce material use and improve shipping efficiency.
At its core, right-sizing is a design philosophy. It requires a rethink from the ground up, but there is a clear business case to implement it. Consumer data shows that 80% of customers favor environmentally-conscious companies when choosing where to shop. Reducing packaging waste can help strengthen brand loyalty while lowering material and shipping costs.
For Consumers — Using Your Voice and Your Wallet
Customers are not powerless in this equation. If you receive an obviously oversized package, consider taking a photo and sharing it with the company’s customer service team or on social media. When patterns emerge, sustainability and operations teams are more likely to prioritize improvements. Data and real-world examples are powerful catalysts for change.
Meanwhile, look for companies that are transparent about their shipping practices. Some publish sustainability reports detailing efforts to reduce weight, increase recycled content or eliminate unnecessary materials. Rewarding these businesses with your purchases sends a market signal about the importance of right-sized packaging.
Even though legislation could help, industry lobbyists can still successfully circumvent it or win exceptions. Ultimately, consumer behavior drives change faster than ever before, so speak up.
Thinking Inside the Box
Oversized boxes represent a chain of material overuse, energy waste and avoidable emissions. From forests harvested for excess cardboard to trucks filled with air, the impacts ripple across supply chains and ecosystems. However, smarter packaging design, better technology and operational adjustments can reduce the problem. Informed consumers can also reinforce the importance of right-sized packaging through purchasing choices. It’s up to everyone to ensure shopping convenience does not come with an outsized environmental cost.