32 million plastic bags a year. Polish fashion e-commerce is drowning in waste
Last year, Polish fashion e-commerce used as many as 16 million plastic bags. This figure is set to double in the coming years, to a skyrocketing 32 million a year. This trend does not necessarily please consumers - almost ¾ of them prefer to receive a parcel wrapped in paper and cardboard rather than plastic. What does the fashion industry have to say about this?
The environmental costs of the fashion industry are not just about textile waste
We don't like it and we love it at the same time - the fashion industry has long had the patch of being one of the least environmentally friendly, but that hasn't stopped it from reaching new production and sales records. According to an analysis by Business Insider Fashion companies account for 10% of global carbon emissions. By comparison, the same amount is emitted by the entire European Union!
- Every year, 100 million garments and 92 million tonnes of textile waste are produced worldwide.
- The textile industry consumes 10-20% of all pesticides used worldwide.
- Each year, for the production of cellulose fabrics, a more than 150 million trees, of which 30% are from primary or endangered forests.
- Textiles is responsible for 20% of global water pollution[i].
- The fabric dyeing process alone generates approx. 93 billion m3 sewage[ii]..
The figures quoted are for textiles alone. It is worth remembering that the fashion industry is not only about the production of clothing, but also about logistics and retailing, including online. The latter contributes to generation of waste from shipping containers, looked at by Development Economics in a study commissioned by DS Smith, the global leader in sustainable packaging.
2,500 every hour, 147 million in 5 years - that's how many plastic bags Polish fashion e-commerce will generate
DS study. Smith shows that in the coming years The Polish fashion e-commerce sector will use as much as 32 million pieces of plastic packaging shipping per year, which will translate into more than 2500 bags delivered every hour. By 2030, as many as 147 million plastic bags will be used in this way.
- While online sales are increasing, online retailers are using more plastic bags compared to stationary shops. - says Katarzyna Kala-Kowalska, CEO of DS Smith Polska.
It might seem that in an era of increasing environmental awareness, both companies and consumers are increasingly moving away from plastic in favour of more sustainable alternatives. However, the statistics are inexorable - among the large European economies, it is the Poland is the fastest growing market for mail order plastic packaging, so readily used by fashion e-commerce, among others. It comes as no surprise, then, that experts forecast as much as 102% increase in plastic bag consumption (from 16md to 32bn) by 2030.
The plastic garment bag has only 1 life - lack of recycling a sore point for Polish e-commerce
Plastic mailing bags are almost never recycled. Only 6% of such packaging used by fashion e-commerce was reused or recycled. The remaining 94% of waste ended its life after just 1 use in either a landfill or incinerator.
Is there an alternative to plastic bags?
As much as possible. Quite the obvious substitute for plastic is paper (classic and expanded envelopes) and cardboard (cartons, cardboard boxes, corrugated envelopes).
- The switch from plastic to paper mailing bags was a turning point. Following the introduction of our first paper bags, customer satisfaction with our new packaging increased by 16 percentage points year-on-year. - says David Fischer, Head of Sustainable Logistics and Packaging at Zalando.
Zalando's observations are also confirmed by the results of the DS study. Smith:
- 57% Polish consumers feel remorse about the amount of plastic in which their orders are delivered.
- 77% wants to phase out plastic bags if replacements are available.
- 72% respondents say they prefer to receive their purchases packaged in cardboard or paper.
- 56% declare that they would be more likely to order from a clothing shop that uses recyclable packaging.
- Eliminating single-use plastic products remains a key challenge for the e-commerce industry in achieving sustainability goals. Finding the ideal solution is quite a challenge, especially in an environment where more sustainable alternatives are not yet fully scalable or may not meet the minimum requirements in terms of both sustainability and operational implementability. - David Fischer adds.
Many mail order packaging companies are now testing reusable packaging. From 2023 onwards, InPost offers deliveries in EkoBox, a collapsible package that can be returned via Parcel Machine. The developer of innovative reusable packaging for e-commerce was also the Loopako brand, which has now gone out of business. In favour of such solutions are not only environmental and image considerations, but also the possibility of optimising the use of reusable packaging. product levy for the packaging introduced and the opportunity to reduce the cost associated with the transfer of the recycling obligation to a recovery organisation. Instead, a significant downside could be the increase in emissions caused by the return of such packages, as well as the cost of the courier service that fashion e-commerce would have to bear.
Source: DS. Smith, Let plastic go out of fashion: by 2030, online fashion shops inPoland will use 147 million plastic bags, https://www.dssmith.com/pl/media/aktualnosci/2025/4/pozwolmy-plastikowi-wyjsc-z-mody-do-2030-roku-internetowe-sklepy-z-moda-w-polsce-zuzyja-147-milionow-plastikowych-toreb
[i] 10 frightening statistics on fast fashion, https://magazynbiomasa.pl/10-zatrwazajacych-statystyk-dotyczacych-fast-fashion/
[ii]. K. Shedlock, S. Feldstein, At what cost? Unravelling the harms of the fast fashion industry, https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/population_and_sustainability/pdfs/Unravelling-Harms-of-Fast-Fashion-Full-Report-2023-02.pdf