Amazon limits the use of flexible packaging

The company recently announced that after replacing 95% of its product protection system with paper in North America, Amazon will send 15 billion fewer plastic cushions to its waste stream.

The e-commerce giant aims to achieve 100% replacement of plastic airbags by the end of the year.

“We are constantly inventing and thinking big to keep our packaging small,” a press release he stated. “We want to ensure that customers receive their products undamaged, while using as little packaging as possible to avoid waste and prioritizing recyclable materials.”

The move is Amazon’s largest-ever effort to reduce plastic packaging in North America. The solution was tested in an automated fulfillment center in Ohio before being rolled out on a larger scale. As noted in the press release, the paper filler is made from 100% recycled materials and is recyclable.

Amazon is also working to ship products without unnecessary packaging – in 2022, 11% of all packages shipped by Amazon worldwide were shipped without additional Amazon shipping packaging.

The company noted that this was also the case cooperated with artificial intelligence and robotics company Glacier to pilot AI-powered robots for sorting recyclables.

Pat Lindner, Amazon’s vice president of mechatronics and sustainable packaging, said in a press release that the work is “a great example of how we are thoughtfully testing and scaling new solutions to protect our customers’ experiences,” and Amazon will “continue to innovate, test and scale to prioritize recyclable materials at the curb.”

A version of this story appeared in the Resource Recycling Update June 25.

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