With the growing urgency in our quest for new, scalable solutions to the world’s ocean plastic crisis, e-commerce and retail companies present an unexpected frontier of opportunity and critical role in developing a circular economy that can foster the change we need. This is all the more the case in South and Southeast Asia (SSEA) where the ocean plastic problem is particularly pronounced and where e-commerce is seeing skyrocketing growth and consolidation.

Examples abound: Walmart acquired Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce retailer in 2018; Amazon has ramped up operations in India, Lazada is dominating ecommerce in Singapore, and locally-grown ridesharing companies Grab and Gojek are rapidly expanding across the region.

We have a plastic pollution problem here in Asia because investment in recycling infrastructure hasn’t been able to keep pace with the exponential growth of consumption. That consumption and consumer purchasing patterns are inextricably linked to retail and e-commerce companies. What’s more, new purchasing habits driven by COVID-19, are causing consumers to turn increasingly to e-commerce brands and online retailers underscoring the opportunity and necessity of having them as part of the solution.

The Last Mile vs. First Mile Conundrum of E-commerce

Fr om their early days, e-commerce companies have had to solve for the last mile problem, in other words, how to get the goods fr om their warehouses to the consumer. The answer has been delivery services. In the U.S., we have relied on UPS, FedEx and USPS among others. In Asia, the problem has been solved by a host of ride-sharing and logistics companies like NinjaVan and CJ Logistics that have partnered with e-commerce retailers like Lazada and Amazon. But regardless of the geography, this challenge remains complex and, regardless of the innovation or technologies applied, the reality of driving every parcel to each household (sometimes multiple times per day) is inefficient and has externalities for the environment and community congestion.

While e-commerce companies may have found a solve for the last mile problem, they’ve helped exacerbate an enormous first mile problem – what consumers should do with their plastic packaging after they use a product in their homes. Those logistics companies are optimized for delivery but not take back of trash. COVID-19 has only magnified the urgency of the challenge. In SSEA, for example, as e-commerce companies have rushed to take advantage of the COVID era opportunities in product and food delivery, we’re witnessing a severe increase in plastic waste that has created its own pandemic as widely reported by The Economist, Forbes and many others.

So how do we solve this conundrum?

The First Mile Opportunity

When thinking about the circular economy, the first mile (i.e., how products are returned or recycled after use) shouldn’t be viewed as a problem. Instead, it presents an opportunity for economic development, particularly in SSEA. Imagine a world wh ere the logistics marvels that delivered products to our front doors took back reusable or recyclable products, helping us create a circular economy while reducing their carbon footprint and some of the negative externalities of these services?

A few companies are pointing the way toward how we might be able to create a first-mile solution at scale. Foodpanda (Singapore’s version of Seamless) has launched a packaging re-use program. Other companies like Recykal in India and Rubicon Global have launched “Uber for trash” platforms, aiming to take on the first mile problem directly by picking up the waste and getting it back in the hands of businesses who can recycle and / or reuse it.

The Foodpanda service delivers goods to your door and removes waste suitable for reuse or recycling.

How Can Retailers Unlock Massive Impact and Opportunity?

Retailers have traditionally focused their efforts in the movement to end plastic waste on reducing our dependence on plastic bags or their own private label products, but they have remained conspicuously absent fr om the front lines of the circular economy conversation and the plastic pollution battles.

But retailers are arguably better positioned to bring about change faster than any other actor primarily because they can align the behaviors of brands. They don’t compete with the supply chain, so they can bring it along with them. I’ve previously written about how Walmart led the way with their efforts to measure the carbon footprint of their supply chain. They also led an effort starting in 2005 to move towards a more sustainable supply chain. Many brands listened because they care about what Walmart did.

And, while everyone likes to ask brands to engage with consumers, they are actually at least one step removed. It’s the retailers that are on the front lines of engagement with the consumer, so they can influence choice incredibly effectively – in fact they do that every day. Through its initiatives Walmart ended up saving a lot of money, reduced supply chain costs and boosted customer loyalty to-boot (to itself and to the brands on its shelves).

Walmart is a leader among major retailers in driving supply chain environmental sustainability.

So where does this take us?

More than any others, it’s the retailers and e-commerce companies that are driving today’s consumer behavior patterns. We’ve got to focus our attention on the root causes of these patterns or we’ll never solve the problem. As today’s pandemic is making abundantly clear, we urgently need retailers and e-commerce companies to come into the fold, join the fight and help us develop a circular economy for plastic packaged goods. This is the next frontier in our fight to curb plastic waste and solve the ocean plastic crisis.

Rob Kaplan Contributor

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