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>> Why, for example, does Amazon not have a standard set of shipping box sizes which it not only delivers, but re-collects via the same logistics network? It t

>> Why, for example, does Amazon not have a standard set of shipping box sizes which it not only delivers, but re-collects via the same logistics network? It tried this with plastic bins. Customers just kept the bins. Enforce return by fining customers who don't return bins? What if they say they were stolen off their porch? You have a huge chain of custody problem here.

andrewstuart 7y ago
>> You have a huge chain of custody problem here. So things will be awesome when the problem is solved. It's usually money that solves problems. Amazon customers want environmentally friendly shipping. So they pay the extra $5 deposit, which Amazon gives back when the container is returned. Those who don't want to return the container have paid for it. Then of course other companies and industries must become greener because customers demand it. And Amazon already has a solution in place for reusable/returnable shipping containers, so it becomes an even bigger win for Amazon when it sells reusable/returnable shipping container service end to end and manages all the chain of ownership stuff and absorbs the complexity and risk. As I say, it's a HUGE problem, so a huge win for whichever company implements what I've already set out above. Just needs to happen that's all. In the future, look for the option "Add $5 for shipping box return collection" on your favorite ecommerce site. And look to Uber to expand to "UberEnvironment" - their container collection service where they pay people to collect containers and return them to cleaning/reuse centers. There are so many, many, many delivery startups out there - they'll be able to expand not only to sending stuff to homes but collecting stuff (containers) from homes.
- icelancer 7y ago
  >> Amazon customers want environmentally friendly shipping. Citation needed. They want it without the burden of... >>> So they pay the extra $5 deposit I highly doubt a large percentage of Amazon customers want environmentally friendly shipping that they have to pay a deposit for and mind a chain of custody. As I noted, Amazon literally already tried this and it didn't work. So, yeah, it's a problem. And eventually someone will fix it. But you act like Amazon hasn't tried it, and you're ignoring all the chain of custody issues with a deposit system that requires shipping rather than a customer-returns method that worked decades years ago when people shopped locally only. People on HN are pretty out of touch with the every day person, I think. These ideas sound really good to medium-high net worth individuals, but the average consumer on Amazon is not in that group and really does not care about the environment all that much if it is going to potentially hurt their pocketbook.
  - beatgammit 7y ago
    I don't think it really matters how big the actual market it, what matters is being known for having such solutions. Even if the majority of customers don't have the service, as long as they know it exists, they'll prefer Amazon vs competitors because they'll feel like they're supporting a company that cares. Personally, I think it would be great if these reusable packages optionally came in a package that has a digital lock that can only be unlocked through the app (i.e. public key crypto over Bluetooth/NFC). This would make them look like the secure option as well as the green option. It can even operate at a loss and probably still be beneficial by driving more purchases their way.
    - jfim 7y ago
      That wouldn't work. Either Amazon has to ship sturdy containers for the lock to be of any use, or thieves would just break it apart with tools. There's a reason why safes need to be bolted to the floor; a safe that's not bolted can just be taken away and opened somewhere else with appropriate tools.
- dredmorbius 7y ago
  So they pay the extra $5 deposit Suppose you live in a location where you leave the materials out for return pick-up, but scavengers collect them rather than the shipper? It's not feasible for the customer to stand guard over the packaging. It's effectively discriminatory to impose a financial penalty based on residence (a factor which cannot readily be controlled or changed). Some alternative means of assuring returns would have to be arrived at. Tracking, centralised or localised return depots, or other mechanisms, might be possiblities.
  - ceejayoz 7y ago
    > Suppose you live in a location where you leave the materials out for return pick-up, but scavengers collect them rather than the shipper? Surely Amazon, of all people, is capable of slapping a unique barcode on each one, and crediting that $5 back to the account it belonged to?
    - allana 7y ago
      Better yet, an RFID tag or BTLE beacon can be embedded cheaply. Some pallets already have these types of chips embedded, and it has ensured these pallets are returned in most cases (and prevented pallet resale).
    - dredmorbius 7y ago
      The credit doesn't appear of the packaging is stolen. The theft is beyond the control of the recipient / customer. That's my point.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
      - ceejayoz 7y ago
        OK, so if they're not scavenging for the deposit, why are they scavenging? Plastic isn't in short supply, there's not much resale value to it.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
fao_ 7y ago
> It tried this with plastic bins. Customers just kept the bins. I'm kind of shocked that you would think of this as a bad thing. If a person is given an item and they find a use for it that isn't harmful, why should that item be forcably repossessed? I would absolutely appreciate a shipping service that takes back cardboard boxes, plastic, etc. used in the delivery of the item, and actually this used to be the case. The milkman wouldn't just deliver the bottles, he would take empty bottles and the company would reuse them. Soda companies as well, used to give out money to recoup the bottles used. It's really only when we moved to the supermarket system, and the plastic bottle, that we stopped doing this. But if you kept the bottles, they didn't outright charge you for it. Actually, according to capitalism charging for the packaging would be a positive move but ineffective and probably negative over the long run. This is because charging for the packaging means you can extract more of a profit from the consumer per delivery. The more packaging you can give them the harder it is to return it and the more you can charge for it (obviously this isn't linear because at some point the packaging costs more than you can easily charge, but in that instance you just do it gradually), and the more incentive for Amazon or whomever to make it difficult to return it. At the same time, it allows them to say that they're doing something, and provides a pretty good political defence for them for them to charge more per packaging.
- icelancer 7y ago
  It's not a bad thing or a good thing. It's increased costs to Amazon to ship durable, plastic bins and have customers take them / not return them. You mention you get money back if you return the containers, which implies a deposit you have to pay (increased price on first purchase), to which I noted that you have a massive chain of custody problem. In the glass bottle example, you - the customer - take the bottles to a recycling center or to the grocery store. (I remember doing this with cans and bottles with my father as a young boy, growing up without a ton of money.) In the Amazon example, you - the customer - take the bins... where? I live in Seattle, so it's easy enough for me to take them to an Amazon pickup location, but probably not for someone in rural Kansas. Leave the bins out to be shipped back to UPS? Those bins are worth a considerable amount of money on deposit most likely, and are prime targets for theft or misappropriation. How is this resolved? You have created a large chain of custody problem and a large burden on their support team. This is all doable. The price will just have to be quite a bit higher than it was in the past for what is likely fairly minimal positive impact on the environment. Take a look at industrial pollution / CO2 effects on the planet by country adjusted for GDP. The United States is not close to the prime offender today - and it'll be even worse in 30 years as China/India go through their own Industrial and Informational revolutions.
dredmorbius 7y ago
Stick firm with the fines. Look to instrumentation options. The USB cable hack making rounds a week or so back was based on a SoC that measures 5mm square and sells for $1 per unit. Adhesive-applied tracking sensors that can be put on virtually everything at a unit cost of $0.25 - $0.50 are likely possible within another year or so, if not already. These can track for shock and orientation in shipping, as well as location. Theft can be identified --- if not attributed, at least high-risk environments can be identified, and alternatives considered (in-store pickup, say). Mind: the same tracking can also produce highly negative applications. Given falling costs, we'd better 1) start thinking about these and 2) get used to this. Though part of my #2 includes constructing legal limitations and protections against malicious use of this data.
skywhopper 7y ago
Well, the way it would work is that you should get a _discount_ on future orders if you return the bin. But that would require Amazon to raise the initial rate, which they don't want to do. This is why so many states still have laws on the books requiring and setting rates for deposits for glass bottles.
joshmaker 7y ago
> It tried this with plastic bins That sounded interesting to me so I tried searching for an article about it, but I couldn’t find anything that talked about Amazon using plastic shipping containers. Do you remember where you read about it?
bradknowles 7y ago
You also have the container shipping problem. What if I don’t have anything to ship back, but I’ve got a whole boatload of containers for shipping? Oops.
- beatgammit 7y ago
  You just leave the container(s) outside your door and they'll pick them up with the next delivery. Amazon could even have the carrier scan the containers on pick-up so the customer isn't liable for the carrier making a mistake.

andrewstuart 7y ago

>> You have a huge chain of custody problem here. So things will be awesome when the problem is solved. It's usually money that solves problems. Amazon customers want environmentally friendly shipping. So they pay the extra $5 deposit, which Amazon gives back when the container is returned. Those who don't want to return the container have paid for it. Then of course other companies and industries must become greener because customers demand it. And Amazon already has a solution in place for reusable/returnable shipping containers, so it becomes an even bigger win for Amazon when it sells reusable/returnable shipping container service end to end and manages all the chain of ownership stuff and absorbs the complexity and risk. As I say, it's a HUGE problem, so a huge win for whichever company implements what I've already set out above. Just needs to happen that's all. In the future, look for the option "Add $5 for shipping box return collection" on your favorite ecommerce site. And look to Uber to expand to "UberEnvironment" - their container collection service where they pay people to collect containers and return them to cleaning/reuse centers. There are so many, many, many delivery startups out there - they'll be able to expand not only to sending stuff to homes but collecting stuff (containers) from homes.

icelancer 7y ago
>> Amazon customers want environmentally friendly shipping. Citation needed. They want it without the burden of... >>> So they pay the extra $5 deposit I highly doubt a large percentage of Amazon customers want environmentally friendly shipping that they have to pay a deposit for and mind a chain of custody. As I noted, Amazon literally already tried this and it didn't work. So, yeah, it's a problem. And eventually someone will fix it. But you act like Amazon hasn't tried it, and you're ignoring all the chain of custody issues with a deposit system that requires shipping rather than a customer-returns method that worked decades years ago when people shopped locally only. People on HN are pretty out of touch with the every day person, I think. These ideas sound really good to medium-high net worth individuals, but the average consumer on Amazon is not in that group and really does not care about the environment all that much if it is going to potentially hurt their pocketbook.
- beatgammit 7y ago
  I don't think it really matters how big the actual market it, what matters is being known for having such solutions. Even if the majority of customers don't have the service, as long as they know it exists, they'll prefer Amazon vs competitors because they'll feel like they're supporting a company that cares. Personally, I think it would be great if these reusable packages optionally came in a package that has a digital lock that can only be unlocked through the app (i.e. public key crypto over Bluetooth/NFC). This would make them look like the secure option as well as the green option. It can even operate at a loss and probably still be beneficial by driving more purchases their way.
  - jfim 7y ago
    That wouldn't work. Either Amazon has to ship sturdy containers for the lock to be of any use, or thieves would just break it apart with tools. There's a reason why safes need to be bolted to the floor; a safe that's not bolted can just be taken away and opened somewhere else with appropriate tools.
dredmorbius 7y ago
So they pay the extra $5 deposit Suppose you live in a location where you leave the materials out for return pick-up, but scavengers collect them rather than the shipper? It's not feasible for the customer to stand guard over the packaging. It's effectively discriminatory to impose a financial penalty based on residence (a factor which cannot readily be controlled or changed). Some alternative means of assuring returns would have to be arrived at. Tracking, centralised or localised return depots, or other mechanisms, might be possiblities.
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  > Suppose you live in a location where you leave the materials out for return pick-up, but scavengers collect them rather than the shipper? Surely Amazon, of all people, is capable of slapping a unique barcode on each one, and crediting that $5 back to the account it belonged to?
  - allana 7y ago
    Better yet, an RFID tag or BTLE beacon can be embedded cheaply. Some pallets already have these types of chips embedded, and it has ensured these pallets are returned in most cases (and prevented pallet resale).
  - dredmorbius 7y ago
    The credit doesn't appear of the packaging is stolen. The theft is beyond the control of the recipient / customer. That's my point.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - ceejayoz 7y ago
      OK, so if they're not scavenging for the deposit, why are they scavenging? Plastic isn't in short supply, there's not much resale value to it.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

fao_ 7y ago

> It tried this with plastic bins. Customers just kept the bins. I'm kind of shocked that you would think of this as a bad thing. If a person is given an item and they find a use for it that isn't harmful, why should that item be forcably repossessed? I would absolutely appreciate a shipping service that takes back cardboard boxes, plastic, etc. used in the delivery of the item, and actually this used to be the case. The milkman wouldn't just deliver the bottles, he would take empty bottles and the company would reuse them. Soda companies as well, used to give out money to recoup the bottles used. It's really only when we moved to the supermarket system, and the plastic bottle, that we stopped doing this. But if you kept the bottles, they didn't outright charge you for it. Actually, according to capitalism charging for the packaging would be a positive move but ineffective and probably negative over the long run. This is because charging for the packaging means you can extract more of a profit from the consumer per delivery. The more packaging you can give them the harder it is to return it and the more you can charge for it (obviously this isn't linear because at some point the packaging costs more than you can easily charge, but in that instance you just do it gradually), and the more incentive for Amazon or whomever to make it difficult to return it. At the same time, it allows them to say that they're doing something, and provides a pretty good political defence for them for them to charge more per packaging.

icelancer 7y ago
It's not a bad thing or a good thing. It's increased costs to Amazon to ship durable, plastic bins and have customers take them / not return them. You mention you get money back if you return the containers, which implies a deposit you have to pay (increased price on first purchase), to which I noted that you have a massive chain of custody problem. In the glass bottle example, you - the customer - take the bottles to a recycling center or to the grocery store. (I remember doing this with cans and bottles with my father as a young boy, growing up without a ton of money.) In the Amazon example, you - the customer - take the bins... where? I live in Seattle, so it's easy enough for me to take them to an Amazon pickup location, but probably not for someone in rural Kansas. Leave the bins out to be shipped back to UPS? Those bins are worth a considerable amount of money on deposit most likely, and are prime targets for theft or misappropriation. How is this resolved? You have created a large chain of custody problem and a large burden on their support team. This is all doable. The price will just have to be quite a bit higher than it was in the past for what is likely fairly minimal positive impact on the environment. Take a look at industrial pollution / CO2 effects on the planet by country adjusted for GDP. The United States is not close to the prime offender today - and it'll be even worse in 30 years as China/India go through their own Industrial and Informational revolutions.

dredmorbius 7y ago

Stick firm with the fines. Look to instrumentation options. The USB cable hack making rounds a week or so back was based on a SoC that measures 5mm square and sells for $1 per unit. Adhesive-applied tracking sensors that can be put on virtually everything at a unit cost of $0.25 - $0.50 are likely possible within another year or so, if not already. These can track for shock and orientation in shipping, as well as location. Theft can be identified --- if not attributed, at least high-risk environments can be identified, and alternatives considered (in-store pickup, say). Mind: the same tracking can also produce highly negative applications. Given falling costs, we'd better 1) start thinking about these and 2) get used to this. Though part of my #2 includes constructing legal limitations and protections against malicious use of this data.

skywhopper 7y ago

Well, the way it would work is that you should get a _discount_ on future orders if you return the bin. But that would require Amazon to raise the initial rate, which they don't want to do. This is why so many states still have laws on the books requiring and setting rates for deposits for glass bottles.

joshmaker 7y ago

> It tried this with plastic bins That sounded interesting to me so I tried searching for an article about it, but I couldn’t find anything that talked about Amazon using plastic shipping containers. Do you remember where you read about it?

bradknowles 7y ago

You also have the container shipping problem. What if I don’t have anything to ship back, but I’ve got a whole boatload of containers for shipping? Oops.

beatgammit 7y ago
You just leave the container(s) outside your door and they'll pick them up with the next delivery. Amazon could even have the carrier scan the containers on pick-up so the customer isn't liable for the carrier making a mistake.