Amazon has announced plans to remove 95% of plastic air pillows from its packaging in North America, a major environmental initiative that it hopes will help it reduce its carbon footprint.
The move is part of a broader company effort to eventually replace plastic fillers with 100% recyclable paper fillers, which would eliminate nearly 15 billion plastic pillows annually.
By opting for paper packaging, Amazon is not only giving it a second life through recycling but also significantly reducing its dependence on plastic, a material derived from fossil fuels.
Amazon set to replace plastic packaging with paper fillers
“For Prime Day this year, nearly all of our customer deliveries will not contain plastic air pillows,” the company said.
Looking ahead, VP of Mechatronics and Sustainable Packaging, Pat Lindner, said: “We are working towards full removal in North America by end of year and will continue to innovate, test, and scale in order to prioritize curbside recyclable materials.”
Amazon has already gained some experience using paper packaging in place of plastic air pillows. Last October, it opened an automated fulfillment center in Ohio that focused on using 100% recycled paper to protect items within its parcels.
Amazon states that paper offers “the same, if not better” protection compared with its plastic counterpart, with the added benefit of being recyclable by regular households without having to be sent off to a special recycling facility.
The company has also taken other measures to reduce wasted material, such as shipping items in original packaging, which accounted for 11% of all packages globally in 2022.
Approaching a $2 trillion market cap, Amazon is the world’s fifth most valuable companies, and with all eyes on its environmental performance, the company hopes that pulling plastic from its packaging will speak volumes.
