Simple Green Shipping. The eBay Box!
Each year eBay holds an “Innovation Expo” where eBay employees are invited to submit their ideas to develop prototypes that will enhance the buyer/seller experience. In 2010 the winner was a concept called “Simple Green Shipping”. The idea was to produce a box for shipping eBay items that could be used over and over again by the eBay community.
All of the eBay Boxes are made from FSC-certified, 100% recycled material and have been printed with water-based inks. They’re designed for durability and minimal taping, so they can withstand multiple uses…and when they are too beat up to ship anything they can go right in the recycling bin!
With the introduction of the Ebay Box, Ebay’s Green Team has brought about a revolutionary way for buyers and sellers alike to conserve on shipping costs and reduce waste.
eBay has estimated that if every box gets reused at least 5 times:
- Nearly 4,000 trees could be protected
- 2.4 MILLION gallons of water will be saved
- 49 homes will have energy for a year, thanks to the energy that was conserved
So far, eBay has sent out 100,000 “eBay Boxes” as their pilot program. They will track each box, and analyze the effectiveness of the program so they can improve the process and increase production if the solution is effective.
We have a bunch of the eBay Boxes here at Sunnking, and we use them in our eBay shipping department for anything that we sell on our eBay store (visit our top rated eBay store). The box is very sturdy as advertised, and the package design is awesome! I took some pictures below to show you the “green” creative on the outside of the box. You can also view some great videos submitted by eBay users documenting their experience with the eBay Box here.
As an added bonus, if you use the eBay Box you can sign into your eBay account and enter the unique box ID number at thebox.ebay.com to receive $1 in eBay Bucks!
