[PLUG-TALK] Recycling with IT, Re: Amazon shipping ...

[Tomas Kuchta]

The only way to stop this waste madness problem is to establish simple and
effective feedback loops.

If only one could make the manufacturer and seller responsible for full
recycling? If only there would be a way to write some rules and enforce
them?

Well, if the above could be done - Then, following would inevitably happen
- price of stuff would go up to pay for said full recycling; some packaging
would not be done at all to avoid the cost and logistics; new industry
would emergency to recycle faster and cheaper; prices would go back to
normal and there would be minimal waste.

Our ability to orchestrate simple changes like described above used to be
what differentiated the developed world from the, so called, third world.
Not anymore, I guess.

-T

On Tue, Feb 19, 2019, 3:00 PM Paul Heinlein <heinlein at madboa.com> wrote:

> On Tue, 19 Feb 2019, Keith Lofstrom wrote:
>
> > Imagine a reusable form of the Amazon shipping bags; the bags won't
> > have printed labels, instead a permanent QR code and an RFID tag,
> > which is associated online with "need-to-know" metadata when the bag
> > is filled and shipped.
> >
> > When the recipient empties the bag, it goes back to the mailbox for
> > collection and return, cleaning and reuse. This is mostly a data
> > infrastructure problem.
>
> It's also a shipping-infrastructure issue.
>
> Return-shipping using private shipping companies like Fedex would I
> suspect significantly increase consumption of fossil fuels by those
> companies, especially in sparsely populated rural and suburban areas,
> since they'd have to make more stops in order to pick up return bags
> (unless, I guess, you only returned a shipping container when you're
> expecting another delivery).
>
> The most efficient way to return the "bag," would be via US Mail. If a
> decent percentage of the container returns could be handled by the
> local letter carrier, then the return costs could approach the
> marginal cost of US Mail. It would be efficient (in both fuel and
> labor) by virtue of taking advantage of the daily routes already in
> place. Assuming a fair shipping rate, it would also go a long way to
> help the finances of the postal service.
>
> --
> Paul Heinlein
> heinlein at madboa.com
> 45°38' N, 122°6' W_______________________________________________
> PLUG-talk mailing list
> PLUG-talk at pdxlinux.org
> http://lists.pdxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-talk
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.pdxlinux.org/pipermail/plug-talk/attachments/20190219/8c04b984/attachment.html>