To tackle the gargantuan waste problem, one can wish that people stop shopping online. But if wishes were horses, beggars would fly.

One cannot, and should not, expect people to suddenly stop shopping online. The convenience of viewing and purchasing almost everything a normal shopper needs is too attractive and alluring to ignore. The joy of exercising virtual power in selection of goods and having them delivered at your doorsteps is too appealing to give up. And the comfort of getting whatever one wants at the click of a mouse is too intoxicating to trade for the rigors of visiting a real market.

The touch and feel of real products are no longer a source of delight or solace for people who are used to sharing their feelings on the Internet and conversing on their phones or laptops. Real shopping like face-to-face conversations is becoming a thing of the past for the Internet generation.

Perhaps this is where old practices, practices that were part of the daily lives of people who grew up between the 1960s and 1990s, could be worth a revisit. Old-timers might remember how they went to the market and bought only the things they needed, nothing more, nothing less, just enough.

Perhaps online shoppers could use the same tactics, and place orders for only the products they really need. Better still, they could wait to place orders for different products in bulk so that fewer materials would be used to pack them. Compulsive purchase has to take a back seat.

Perhaps only then can the waste generated by online shoppers be reduced. Other measures, such as recycling programs and a standard delivery packaging system by courier and e-business companies, may seem good but could prove illusory in the ultimate analysis.

The author is a senior editor with China Daily.