Where the Packages Go

For those of us in small buildings without doorstaff who don’t have, or want to the risk of hackable app-based or electronic door locks, why can’t UPS, FedEx and DHL have the same building keys that Post Office mail delivers use every day? These delivery services having those USPS keys would prevent failed attempted deliveries while we are not home without packages being left vulnerable on the front stoop of our building, both situations I experienced in just the past couple of days?

Now do the article on where all these boxes end up and whether there's any recycling efforts taking place.

The solution lies at the feet of Jeff Bezos. He should put up a purse of $1M (or more) for anyone who can devise a system whereby these delivery boxes can be re-used repeatedly or, alternatively, disposed of in a way to benefit the Earth It is very often that teenagers working together at their schools solve difficult problems. (In which case the purse goes up accordingly.). Amazon boxes, like Amazon itself, are all around the globe. Bezos has a responsibility to tidy up when he leaves.

Amazon and other services used to bring packages to a designated area of the basement in our 70-unit apartment building on the upper West side. Now, everyone leaves packages in the lobby (there’s no doorman), or in the vestibule completely unlocked and unsafe. It isn’t hard to understand, given the enormous pressure the companies put on the delivery people to get the maximum number of boxes delivered. No number of calls to Amazon, or UPS, have been effective in changing this new practice.

Nice photo illustration here.

Packages should be shot over from Jersey from banks of cannon and captured in nets installed on the top of buildings. This would magically clear 90% of the traffic in Manhattan. Of course a sudden burst of hot air might send an errant box through the window at trump Tower...

This article simply looks at the front end of a vastly larger system. Where do you think all those boxes, once delivered, go? How is the recycling of them managed and handled by the various buildings? Because trust me on this, it's a problem. Convenience is one thing; the explosion in trash on the back end of this delivery cycle is quite another. The cardboard, the packing, etc.. How are the various (sized) buildings managing that aspect, eh? Because you can bet your sweet lower posterior the residents don't tend to care. They just throw the container away with little thought as to what becomes of it. An article on the latter aspect would be note-worthy. Maybe even enlightening for some. Or at least it would be to me, since as a citizen living in a +30 unit non-doorman/super building I have taken on the task of volunteering to at least keep the detritus collapsed and bundled together. Quite honestly the sheer volume of it, all the waste, on a daily basis, is appalling in that "where in the world does all this stuff GO?" kind of way. John~ American Net'Zen

Sounds like a fire hazard putting these things in hallways etc. fdny should get involvedc

The empty boxes are picked up and returned to UPS and Amazon by the delivery drivers, correct?

The consumerist mentality of our culture will quite possibly kill us, drowning the populace via endless delivery boxes, along with the resulting rise of sea levels thanks to environmental abuse. We are awash in unnecessary things.

Sounds a bit better than the method my FedEx and UPS drivers use—putting the package under one of empty garbage cans.

Seventy package deliveries a day in a 200 unit apartment. Yikes! How much stuff do people need? Most of it ends up in landfills. Can our environment take this much stuff?

Latch doesn’t cut it for many residents who may have jobs where answering their phone or having it available is possible. I don’t really see the big issue but wouldn’t a cabinet that can lock solve much of the problem? usps enters our building with a special key...

The package problem is the result of the lack of retail stock of all kinds available in local stores. How to manage the package problem is a false concern. That so many retail spots stand empty and I can’t even find many of my daily needs, which I then have to order, is the problem. The city should mandate that landlords rent stores, or revoke their licenses. Stop giving tax breaks for empty stores and start caring about those of us who live here.

"Before Latch, tenants complained about packages being stolen whenever carriers would buzz an apartment and then leave packages outside the door of the building." Let me get this straight. Package carriers were leaving packages on the street in full view of any passersby? If that was so, I'm not surprised some of the packages got stolen, I'm surprised that it wasn't *all* of the packages that got stolen.

And what about all the residual trash?

@ Sue Generis New York City "Is this even legal?" -- You are raising an important question of liability of the package delivery services for the items left wherever. It may be worth the cost of a consultation with a lawyer. For ex., is a theft of a package left on a sidewalk a crime? For insured items, what do the insurance companies say about haphazardly left items?

Packages are byproduct of people's desire to acquire mostly unnecessary things. Receipt of a package is usually also associated with a good feeling, "Here, I got something!", like a present. I have been for several decades receiving all my mail to a P. O. Box, and the Post Office notifies me by a note in my box, when a package bigger than the box is received. Simple and efficient.

My building in the Bronx has parcel boxes that USPS has access to. Anything delivered by any other company often gets left by the apt door. Once a package was left with a neighbor, although I did not request it. If they can't get in the building at all, delivery is attempted again or it's left some pick-up site. After being annoyed by this, I try my best to have packages delivered to a neighborhood access point. However, many of those have limited hours. I recently opted for a large pharmacy, since they're open longer, but the employees either haven't been trained or just don't care. My package was delivered but they told me it wasn't there 2 days in a row. When I disputed this, the employee found my package: the very first one he originally looked at. Honestly, it's easier to sometimes just to go to the store to get what I need. I don't think my management will sign up for any of these systems.

This infuriates me. My neighborhood and its sidewalks are inundated with Amazon boxes and packages. They are under building scaffolding, next to a park playground and between parked cars in the street. Is this even legal? In my lobby these boxes are stacked high up between elevator doors, in front of windows and near the incinerator room. I’m not sure how safe it would be to let delivery personnel into buildings without lobby staff and leave packages in the lobby or the inside entrance.