LIFE helps to ease the impact of online shopping

Online shopping and home deliveries are surely one of the mega-trends of recent years. Parcel volumes across Europe routinely surge during Black Friday week and in the run-up to Christmas, rising far beyond demand at other times of the year.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have evolved well beyond a shopping event: they have become a logistical and environmental challenge, with concentrated waves of orders placing added pressure on transport networks, contributing to higher CO₂ emissions and generating additional packaging waste.

That’s where LIFE GreenYourRoute and LIFE CENTS4PACK make a difference: minimising the impact of last-mile deliveries and rewarding citizens to recycle more.

The 5-year, €2.2 million LIFE GreenYourRoute project builds on the earlier success of LIFE GreenYourMove. The GYR app enables delivery companies and small businesses to plan daily routes, reschedule deliveries and calculate vehicle emissions — all while saving fuel, minimising emissions and cutting air pollution. Over the course of the project there were more than 25 000 routing requests — resulting in journey reductions of more than 800 000 km, saving more than 1 570 tonnes of fuel, 1 500 tonnes of CO₂ and 39 tonnes of nitrogen oxide. Since the GYR platform and app were launched, more than 180 users have been trained to use the platform and there are now more than 150 active app users.

LIFE CENTS4PACK — a 3-year, €1.4 million project which closed last January — combines artificial intelligence and the internet of things (IoT) in a reward-as-you-throw (RAYT) scheme in Guadalajara, Spain. IoT-enabled RecySmart devices on 400 recycling bins use acoustic sensors to detect the amount and type of waste. They then add points to the user’s smartphone or reward card which can be spent in 60 participating ‘ecomarket’ stores and businesses.

‘One of the most remarkable aspects of this project is that it not only aims for environmental improvement but also supports the local economy through recycling,’ says Councillor Jesús David García Galve from Guadalajara City Council. ‘RecySmart is a perfect tool that enables local authorities to know who is recycling and whether they are doing it correctly.’

Following some impressive results — recycled packaging up 18.1% and glass up 3.8%; 200 tonnes of CO₂ emissions avoided and 2 314 m³ of water saved — there are plans to roll out similar schemes across Europe. Given the billions of packages which will be delivered to homes across the EU over the next few weeks, that can’t come soon enough.

2025 will be the first Christmas since the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation came into force. LIFE GreenYourRoute and LIFE CENTS4PACK are just 2 of the nearly 7 000 LIFE projects funded by the EU over the past 3 decades supporting the EU Directives on waste, single use plastics and waste shipments, as well as the EU Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe, Circular Economy Action Plan and the European Green Deal.