Internet Shopping and the Environment
There 
are many reasons why you should shop for your groceries online. It is true that it is convenient, and that you save time by not having to traipse around the store collecting items, and that there’s a certain thrill to be gained from shopping at Tesco at 4am for the first time in the comfort of your pyjamas, but all of these reasons have been covered many time before. Having glided through the virtual aisles for the first time this month, it struck me that there was a strong environmental case for forgoing a trip to your local supermarket. For most people, the weekly shop involves getting in their car and driving, which seems to me the lowest hanging piece of fruit on this particular tree. Obviously, the delivery vehicle is probably burning fossil fuels too, but a sensibly planned “milk-round” delivery service covers less miles than a “hub-and-spoke” model for the same number of houses, and will reduce congestion at the store itself.
There are several other ways that this type of shopping can benefit the environment too: in my experience, less packaging is used, as either the food is put in boxes which are carried into your kitchen and then taken away, or the food is brought in strong plastic bags that can be reused again and again. Those that have researched Internet shopping will know that there are broadly two ways for the food to come to your door: the first is direct from the warehouse and the second is when someone walks around the shop for you collecting your goods as a regular shopper would. The former is by far the more environmentally friendly: the warehouses can be more tightly packed, so less heating is needed, you save the added trip of taking the food from the warehouse to the store and lastly there’s no need to have open refrigerators, which seem to me the most wasteful piece of equipment in modern retailing as you’re simultaneously heating and cooling the same air.
