Why your holiday gift returns might go to a landfill and what you can do about it

The holiday season will soon come to a close, but the busiest time of the year for product returns is just beginning.The National Retail Federation estimates 17% of holiday purchases will be sent back this year.More retailers are reporting extended return windows and increased holiday staff to handle the rush this year.A major driver for returns is uncertainty.

When we buy for other people, finding what they want is a bit of a guessing game.Online purchases have higher return rates because finding the right size and color is tough when you're just staring at images on screens.“Clothing and footwear, as you can imagine, because fit is such an important criteria, they have higher rates of returns,” said Saskia van Gendt, chief sustainability officer at Blue Yonder, which sells software designed to improve companies' supply chain management.Returns come with an environmental cost, but there's a lot consumers and companies are doing to minimize it.If a company sells a thing, it's probably packaged in plastic.

Plastic is made from oil, and oil production releases emissions that warm the planet.If that thing is bought online, it's put on a plane or a train or a truck that usually uses oil-based fuel.If you buy a thing and return it, it goes through most or all of that all over again.And once those products are back with the retailer, they may be sent along to a refurbisher, liquidator, recycler or landfill.

All these steps require more travel, packaging and energy, ultimately translating to more emissions.Joseph Sarkis, who teaches supply chain management at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, estimates that returning an item increases its impact on the planet by 25% to 30%.Roughly a third of the time, those returns don't make their way to another consumer.

Because frequently, it's not worth reselling.If, for example, you get a phone, but you send it back because you don't like the color, the seller has to pay for the fuel and equipment to get the phone back, and the...