SAN JOSE, Calif. /California Newswire/ — NEXT Future Transportation Inc. (“NEXT”), The world’s leading automated transportation innovator for Smart and Connected Cities is responding to and initiating its own response to the global single-use e-Commerce packaging waste challenge.
Online retail is only going to get bigger. The world’s largest online retailer sold 100 million products last year. Online retail grew by 16 percent last year in the U.S., while all retail rose 3.8 percent. E-Commerce companies use USD $20 billion worth of corrugated materials per year and the market for e-commerce packaging is forecasted to grow at an annual rate of 14.3 percent through 2022.
According to Fast Company, about 165 billion packages are shipped in the U.S. each year, with the cardboard used roughly equating to more than 1 billion trees. At the same time, retailers want to ensure that goods arrive in perfect condition and that results in over-packaging. Consequently both shoppers and retailers are starting to wake up to the packaging issue. Consumers are sharing feelings of guilt, frustration and sheer embarrassment of recycling all those boxes as part of the “cardboard economy”.
Left without any alternatives, e-commerce companies were forced to use cardboard inefficiently, and most transferred the recycling responsibility to customers. Meanwhile, the recycling industry is sending an unprecedented amount of e-commerce packaging materials to landfills.
“Before the e-commerce era, most of the product packaging was collected in a centralized way by retailers, however, today we’re experiencing a 40 percent increase in corrugated containers in the U.S. curbside recycling system,” said Tommaso Gecchelin, Co-Founder and CTO of NEXT.
Brand-owners, retailers and consumers alike all need to take responsibility for reducing the packaging impact on the environment.
NEXT’s groundbreaking Modular Mobile Locker solution currently offers the only solution to the e-commerce industry’s growing packaging quandary. Built on NEXT’s patented modular transportation platform, the last mile e-commerce delivery solution is an automated electric vehicle system that is designed to be customizable and scalable for a wide range of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) applications.
‘It’s expected that the online trade’s decentralization will drive more packaging out to consumers. However, that shouldn’t mean that we should choking on waste,” said Emmanuele Spera, CEO of NEXT. “Our patented Modular Mobile Locker delivery solution will allow e-commerce companies to deliver their parcels to customers without additional cardboard packaging,” said Spera.
NEXT’s “Package Free Shopping” distribution solution will empower e-commerce customers who are supporting the reduction of waste, pollution and the overall environmental impact.
“E-commerce is a relatively new delivery method, and with all its new systems it takes time to work out the challenges and opportunities. Therefore, opportunities to capitalize on further development of the packaging supply chain for e-commerce and subsequently omni-commerce solutions will come only through industry collaboration and transparency,” said Sven Hackmann, EVP at NEXT.
NEXT Future Transportation aims to reduce environmental and social impacts of the global e-commerce industry, while focusing on its own ability to deliver quality products to consumers in cities around the globe.
Video:
ABOUT NEXT:
NEXT Future Transportation, Inc. is a mass transportation and goods movement startup that is developing a patented modular, autonomous, electric vehicle fleet and the supporting operating system required to bring the systems and services to market at scale. NEXT received seed funding from DP World, the world’s largest owner-operator of marine and inland ports. Learn more: http://Get-Next.com/.
News Source: NEXT Future Transportation Inc.
