With Santa’s workshop at the North Pole creating presents for children all around the world, environmentalists cannot help but wonder where all the elves’ waste ends up after the annual Christmas holiday.

Does the round-belly man burn the cardboard boxes and bubble wrap upon sliding down each family’s chimney, or do the elves recycle the materials for the following year?

Elves and American holiday shoppers looking to snag a deal online are expected to contribute to the $207 billion Adobe Analytics projects to be spent online between November and December—a 10% increase from 2020.

At Marlow High School alone, 44% of students reported shopping online more during the holidays than during any other time of year.

An increase in online purchases consequently results in an increase in shipping materials, such as cardboard boxes, envelopes and cushioning, and with the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2020 estimation of packaging waste making up approximately 30% of the United States’ annual waste, a rise in packaging waste is the opposite direction environmentalists are trying to go towards in reducing the population’s ecological footprint.

Packaging materials, however, is not the only demand that arises as a result of online shopping.

Postal services around the world have to prepare for the online-shopping frenzy by hiring temporary workers to supply shipping demands, and many employees of postal services have to work extra hours during the holidays.

“This year we have hired approximately 40,000 seasonal employees so that our staffs are full,” explained Becky Hernandez, United States Postal Service Strategic Communications Specialist. “We also installed 112 new package sorters throughout the country, and one is in Oklahoma City. These sorters process mail twelve times faster than manual processing, which has been extremely helpful this year.”

The temporary workers are a necessity for the final months of the year as approximately 3.4 billion parcels—an increase of 400 million in comparison to 2020—are expected to travel the country during the holidays, according to Satish Jindel at ShipMatrix, an organization that analyzes data on the shipping of packages.

Within each package that is shipped, the chances of receiving an item surrounded by cushioning, such as plastic bags full of air or bubble wrap, is high.

Protective-packaging companies are part of a $5.6 billion industry, according to market-research firm Freedonia Group, and the industry is booming as a result of the rise in e-commerce.

Popular among brands such as Amazon, Home Depot and Walmart, Sealed Air, a company founded in 1960 by the inventors of bubble wrap, has experienced a 40% rise in its “fill-air” product, or the plastic bags full of air found in packages to keep items from moving.

The increase in demand for the cheap, lightweight and easily-storable product is one that retailers are responsible for, and the Earth is suffering as a result.

The plastic packages full of air contribute towards the global problem of plastic sacks having low recycling rates.

Penn State University reported that only 1% to 3% of plastic bags are recycled per year, and consequently, those plastic bags take 700-1000 years to break down due to not being biodegradable, as explained by The World Counts.

However, some brands, such as Best Buy, are working towards fighting the increase of packaging materials and its damage to the environment.

In 2019 the company invested money into new technology within its warehouses in the forms of machinery that not only builds custom-sized boxes ready to ship but also creates approximately fifteen per minute.

The Star Tribune explained that the machines’ sensors measure the size of the item on the conveyor before a packing slip is placed on top of the object while the machine cuts a cardboard box to perfectly fit around the item—completely eliminating unnecessary packaging and extra space commonly found in packages.

Because of the removal of air pockets within Best Buy packages, more space is available within mail trucks which allows for more packages to fit into the space when out on deliveries—ultimately lessening the amount of trips mail carriers make.

“The holiday season is extremely hectic,” expressed Hernandez. “During the holidays last year, we [USPS] delivered 1.1 billion packages. This year, we anticipate between 850 million and 950 million packages.”

Although, extra packaging is not the only waste problem the world suffers with during the holidays; overall, Americans throw away approximately 25% more trash during the holiday period between Thanksgiving and New Years in comparison to any other time of the year, according to Stanford University.

The university also stated that the extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage or approximately one million extra tons per week.

The season of giving is notoriously wasteful for consumers around