{"id":14454,"date":"2021-01-25T01:40:58","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T01:40:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=14454"},"modified":"2024-03-12T23:17:16","modified_gmt":"2024-03-12T23:17:16","slug":"students-online-shopping-habits-a-growing-concern-for-waste-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/?p=14454","title":{"rendered":"Students\u2019 online shopping habits a growing concern for waste management"},"content":{"rendered":"I<\/span>n the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Humber College and University of Guelph-Humber students living in residence and nearby apartments have taken to online shopping and food deliveries to avoid making unnecessary outings. But despite its conveniences and allowance for physical distancing, there have been concerns among students, landlords, and waste management alike regarding the excess waste produced by delivery packaging and its negative environmental consequences.<\/p>\n

Anita Zeiger, a student undergoing training as a pastry chef at Humber College, has been living in residence for the last two years. She says that last year, she consistently ordered items from Amazon and had them delivered to the residence\u2019s front desk for pickup. This year, however, she has noticed an increase in her own and fellow students\u2019 online shopping habits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI normally do a lot of my school supply shopping online . . . There has always been a lot of people who order off of UberEATS and SkipTheDishes and Amazon, myself included,\u201d said Zeiger. \u201cBut I\u2019ve definitely been doing it more this year because of the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zeiger cites her reluctance to going out to do her shopping is largely due to the risk of contracting COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, I would take the bus to Fortinos to do my groceries every weekend,\u201d said Zeiger. \u201cBut it\u2019s the middle of winter, public transport is limited, Queen\u2019s Plate is too far a walk, and I don\u2019t want to take too many risks in possibly catching the coronavirus when going out . . . It\u2019s a lot easier and safer to just order food from my phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karen Wyatt is currently in her final year at the University of Guelph-Humber. She lives in a basement apartment neighbouring the North campus. Because of her apartment\u2019s significant distance from the nearest shops and grocery stores, she has been heavily relying on doorstep deliveries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been having to order food in a lot,\u201d said Wyatt. \u201cI\u2019m trying to avoid going out whenever possible, so I usually get UberEATS every few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wyatt\u2019s landlord, Kanav Singh, has been renting out his basement to students for the last five years. However, he has also recently noticed an increase in packages arriving at his house.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been seeing a lot of Amazon packages,\u201d said Singh. \u201cOn garbage collection day, I usually see a lot of pizza boxes, McDonald\u2019s bags, Burger King . . . The kids are usually good with recycling, but the cans are almost always full.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite not being overly concerned, he is aware of the potential waste management issues that his student tenants pose.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand it\u2019s not safe to go out and I don\u2019t have a problem with it, but I am worried about garbage collection,\u201d said Singh. \u201cI\u2019ve had to talk to the kids about being more careful with how much stuff they throw away because there\u2019s a limit on how much the collectors will pick up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safa Al-Haji, the environmental coordinator at the Humber Office of Sustainability specializing in waste management and reducing waste on campus, expressed her concern over the negative environmental impact of excessive online shopping.<\/p>\n

\u201cExcessive online shopping is a problem for waste management and sustainability because of the overpackaging,\u201d said Al-Haji.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you order a phone case from Amazon, it comes in a bubble wrapped paper envelope. That definitely cannot be recycled, even if you were to strip the two materials. It all comes down to packaging and where that plastic, paper, or cardboard will end up . . . Considering we have Amazon Prime now with same-day delivery, there is an even higher chance that people will order three things but at different times, which would get shipped in three different containers. This is a waste and would cause major disruption to our environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Al-Haji insists that although she understands the importance of avoiding going out whenever possible in the middle of the pandemic, students can do so while simultaneously being mindful of their environmental impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Amazon, some advice I would give is to try to order everything you need in one day so everything comes in one box. Rather than ordering things at random intervals and receiving them at different times,\u201d Al-Haji advised.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith UberEATS, I definitely fall victim to this app, but I opt out of cutlery or plastics in general. This way I can at least reduce my footprint. However, eating in and making your own meal is definitely the way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many Humber College and University of Guelph-Humber students living in residence and nearby apartments have taken to online shopping and food deliveries to avoid making unnecessary outings. But despite its conveniences and allowance for physical distancing, there have been concerns among students, landlords, and waste management alike regarding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":16904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[174,141,89,62],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14454"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18712,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14454\/revisions\/18712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gh360.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}