Eco-friendly in a mail-order world…
Do I see the irony in mail-ordering bio-friendly products? Of course I do.
This is something else I've struggled with... the lack of selection or price locally compared to mail order. And I've got an Amazon Prime account, which means I get free, two-day shipping. ("Free" as in, I paid $80 a year to not have to pay shipping on individual orders.) Since I then don't have to wait until I've got a $25 order to get free (and slow) shipping, I can order a $5 item all by itself without the "shipping cost" tax.
And if I really want to get into the mind-set... the more small orders I make, the more I get my money's worth. But I fortunately don't have a tendency to think that way. I just think, "I want this memory card right now, it's $11, and I can get it in a day or two." (I live close enough to one warehouse that "2-day" shipping is often next-day.) And if I happen to want something else the next day? Two boxes, two deliveries, where there could have been one.
So I've got this never-ending stream of Amazon boxes. Okay, it's not horrible... it turns out I only place an average of less than two orders a month, and I'm probably paying about the same as standard shipping (but getting two-day shipping). But still... I find myself wondering at the ecological cost. We re-use the boxes... my mom has an eBay business that sucks most of them up. But there's all that fuel.
Buying mass-produced goods (books and electronics mostly, with the occasional cast-iron cookware) really doesn't fit into a buying-local mindset. Even if I buy that book or memory card locally, it still got shipped here from China. And I'd have to spend gas driving to at least one store. Is the eco-cost of delivering that good directly to my home from a warehouse really significantly more than delivering it to a retail store where I go pick it up? Is it enough to influence my choice?
And all this from the guy who works 38 miles from home. I got approval to work from home two days a week (up one), but I'm still driving 228 miles a week just to get to work.