Amazon is dishing out some serious pillowtalk.
The e-commerce giant announced Thursday it has removed 95 percent of plastic air pillows from delivery packaging in North America, which means it will use 15 billion fewer of the pillows annually.
According to the company, it has started substituting those pillows with paper filler made from 100 percent recycled content that can be recycled curbside. Amazon does not make its own paper filler; instead, it purchases it from third-party suppliers.
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The company tested the approach in an Ohio fulfillment center, and in October, announced that facility was its first U.S. location to eliminate plastic packaging entirely. Since seeing success there with the paper filler, the company has employed that approach in its other North American facilities.
To do so, the company said, it had to change out some of its machinery and re-train employees on the new systems and machines it implemented to make the plastic reduction a possibility.
Christian Garcia, a fulfillment associate at an Amazon facility in Bakersfield, Calif., said the experience of switching to paper-based packaging has been positive for him and other employees.
“I’m so excited we’re changing over to paper. It’s not only easier to work with, but the machinery gives us more space so it’s easier to pack orders. And I’m proud to be a part of a change that allows customers to recycle at home,” Garcia said in a statement.
This initiative, which the company said marks its largest-ever reduction in plastic-based materials in North America, is not the only way the company continues to decrease its plastic usage, particularly in packaging.
Earlier this year, the company announced that its Climate Pledge Fund had invested in Glacier, a startup using AI and robotics to ease the burden of recycling. The Prime purveyor has been working with the company to find ways it can salvage previously unrecyclable materials and purify its waste streams.
In 2022, Amazon announced it had partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy on a plastic waste reduction project, in which it has worked with the agency on chemical upcycling.
But despite its progress, Amazon still has a ways to go when it comes to decreasing its use of plastics. According to Oceana research from earlier this year, Amazon generated 208 million pounds’ worth of mailers, bubble wrap and shrink film in the United States alone. The non-profit alleged that consumers in the U.S. have been left behind when it comes to plastics progress, despite being Amazon’s largest market.
At the time the report came out, Pat Lindner, vice president of mechatronics and sustainable packaging at Amazon, said Oceana’s numbers were incorrect and overblown.
Upon Amazon’s latest announcement around North American plastic reduction, Lindner said further innovation is at the forefront of Amazon’s future strategy.
“I’m proud of the cross-Amazon collaboration to make a positive impact on the customer delivery experience with easier to recycle materials. It’s a great example of how we thoughtfully test and scale new solutions to protect our customer experience,” Lindner said in a statement. “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.”
Matt Littlejohn, Oceana’s vice president of strategic initiatives, said Amazon’s latest progress is a good start, particularly given that Oceana’s recent research showed that air pillows account for over one-third of plastic packaging by weight across all of e-commerce. But the organization, which has long called for Amazon to reform its packaging strategy, still believes the company should strive for further progress.
“As the world’s dominant e-commerce company, Amazon’s action to reduce plastic packaging is welcome news for the oceans and the company’s customers,” Littlejohn said. “While this is a significant step forward for the company, Amazon needs to build on this momentum and fulfill its multi-year commitment to transition its North America fulfillment centers away from plastic. Then, the company should expand these efforts and also push innovations like reusable packaging to move away from single-use packaging everywhere it sells and ships.”
