<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/recology.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/recology.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/recology.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > Recology in San Fransico accumulates an additional 100 tons of cardboard every day. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Despite common logic, the unseen impacts of e-commerce are hurting the environment more than they're helping, a new study suggests.

Although shopping from home keeps shoppers from jumping in their cars, one-by-one, to drive to local stores, online shopping has a greater impact on transportation and greenhouse emissions, according to a multi-year study by the University of Delaware.

“Our simulation results showed that home shopping puts an additional burden on the local transportation network, as identified through four measures of effectiveness — travel time, delay, average speed, and greenhouse gas emissions,” said study co-author Mingxin Li, a researcher at the Delaware Center for Transportation.

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/fedex.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/fedex.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/fedex.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > Online shopping has led to an increase in delivery trucks, causing more wear and tear on roadways and an increase in diesel emissions. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

While online stores require less space and energy to run, the delivery trucks used to transport purchases create more wear and tear on roadways and increase pollution produced by their diesel engines.

Traffic is also affected by the frequent truck stops to load and unload goods on residential and downtown streets, streets that weren’t made to accommodate such events.

“There’s a whole fleet of trucks circulating through neighborhoods nonstop ,” Dan Sperling, the founding director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, and the transportation expert on the California Air Resources Board, told the New York Times.

However, the increase freight traffic is all for not.

“We found that the total number of vehicles miles traveled hasn’t decreased at all with the growth of online shopping,” Ardeshir Faghri told the University of Delaware Daily. “This suggests that people are using the time they save by shopping on the internet to do other things like eating out at restaurants, going to the movies, or visiting friends.”

Yet, freight deliveries and consumer traffic aren’t the only factors that suggest online shopping is hurting the environment.

In 2014, over 35 million tons of cardboard was produced, and online shopping companies were some of the most notable users.

(More: Study Ties U.S. to Spike in Global Methane Emissions )

In the past seven years, Amazon has seen 33 million comments, photos and ratings filed into its “packaging feedback program” in order to judge their efficiency for boxes sizes to the size of the product.

Recology, San Francisco’s premier recycling processor, accumulates an additional 100 tons of cardboard every day, says spokesman Robert Reed.

And, in contrast to popular belief, recycling doesn’t solve this entire problem. To convert waste back into reusable material, packaging still needs to be shipped and processed, which requires a lot of energy and water.

“Online shopping has not helped the environment,” Faghri said. “It has made it worse.”

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