In the midst of the holiday season, a parent took to the r/Anticonsumption subreddit to reveal a sponsored Facebook post by Temu advertising products for one cent.
"Yeah, I'm sure you'll get some real quality products with this," wrote the OP, along with a screenshot of the ad.
Temu is an online marketplace that sells heavily discounted consumer goods, mostly shipped directly from China. The environmental impact of purchasing from Temu has been widely frowned upon. In an article by Greenpeace, the e-commerce platform is said to impact the environment in multiple ways, and "its daily operation inevitably brings about multiple environmental impacts."
These negative environmental impact factors come from computing and transportation, packaging waste, and chemicals, in addition to general low-wage costs that come from low-priced e-commerce websites.
Computing relies on pollution to generate electricity. A 2021 study cited by Greenpeace said that about 1.8% of electricity in the U.S. is consumed by data centers. E-commerce websites like Temu function by amassing a large amount of data to take in orders and advertise to consumers.
Transportation is known for increasing pollution worldwide. The distance that products must travel from the e-commerce website worldwide concerns environmentalists, as express delivery and deliveries crossing borders are estimated to be about 131 billion parcels transported, mostly by air.
Additional chemicals and packaging waste used by the company can create hazardous and needless waste. At the same time, keeping the costs low — in this case, at one cent — means paying workers ultra-low wages, drastically reducing sustainable life outcomes in those countries.
"I've never bought from Shein or Temu and don't intend to," said a commenter. Shein is another discounted e-commerce website with practices similar to Temu.
Around the holiday season, environmentalists recommend sourcing gifts from local shops or even thrifting gifts. This reduces waste by ordering from international shops and can be significantly cheaper.
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