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α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
A surge in packaging waste from online shopping is raising environmental concerns. In this paper, we examine the effect of online shopping on packaging waste generation. Using county-level waste generation and online shopping data, we find that online shopping generates 4.8 times more packaging waste than offline shopping given the same amount of spending. Our results suggest that a new policy is necessary to prevent further environmental damage due to the packaging waste from online shopping.