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Environmental activists are calling for a crackdown on large e-commerce warehouses that have shot up since the pandemic caused a rise in online shopping. A proposal that is being pushed in City Hall would make it much harder for these buildings to pop up around New York City neighborhoods.

Source: Our Changing Climate/Youtube

According to Earthjustice, who is representing the coalition, the last-mile trucking facilities do not undergo any public review process or environmental review.

The Last-Mile Coalition submitted a proposal to amend the city’s zoning rules. The amendments would mean that there would finally be regulations for facilities that are 50,000 square feet or bigger. This would also ban warehouses within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, nursing homes, public housing buildings, or any other such warehouses.

To even build a warehouse, a special permit would be required with review from the city transportation and environmental protection agencies to make sure that they will not impact nearby traffic, pedestrian and road safety, or air pollution. Facilities that are along the water would be required to have 80 percent of deliveries in and out of the buildings arrive by water.

The Last-Mile Coalition members say that many of the new e-commerce warehouses are in communities of color and low-income communities that are already disproportionately affected by things like air Pollution, traffic, noise pollution, etc.

Quick delivery services like Amazon’s Prime is what many people relied on for groceries and other necessities during the pandemic. Now, as life is returning to normal, many are likely to stick with the quick delivery service. This puts a huge strain on the environment. Amazon Prime ships 1.6 million packages every day. While some people only use delivery services like this for necessities or groceries, many use fast delivery for things they don’t need quickly or at all for that matter.

Often customers going to order a product from Amazon will order much more than just one product because the one-day shipping incentivizes more purchases. This means more fuel being used in the vehicles, more packaging, and more strain on the workers. It’s important to think about if we truly need the item we are purchasing and if we need that product as soon as possible. Conscious purchasing is the name of the game, and the choices we make have a much bigger impact than we often think.

Sign this petition to demand Amazon implement a fully sustainable system!

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