Amazon has replaced plastic air pillows with crumpled paper in its packaging worldwide

[midian182]

What just happened? Amazon says it has reached its goal of eliminating plastic air pillows from its warehouses and distribution facilities globally. The familiar packaging has now been replaced with paper filler, which the company says is not only better for the environment, but also offers the same, if not better, protection for fragile goods.

Amazon has spent years working toward the goal of removing plastic delivery packaging from fulfillment centers and focusing on using recycled materials. In June, it announced that it had reduced the use of plastic air pillows in its packages by 95% in North America as it switches to crumpled paper. Amazon had already eliminated the pillows across its European facilities in 2022, in Australia in 2021, and in India in 2020.

In a recent post, Amazon confirmed that as of October 2024, it has removed all plastic air pillows from delivery packaging used at the company's global fulfillment centers.

The packaging paper Amazon uses is curbside recyclable so customers can recycle it at home, and it's made from 100% recycled content. The tech giant also says that its testing, which included assessment by a third-party engineering lab, shows that the paper's ability to protect goods is as good as or better than the air pillows.

While the removal of the air pillows doesn't apply to orders shipped by third-party sellers, nonprofit ocean advocacy group Oceana has welcomed the announcement.

"The fact that the world's largest e-commerce company has made plastic air pillows history globally is fantastic news for the world's oceans," said Matt Littlejohn, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Oceana. The group says plastic film is the deadliest type of plastic for large mammals such as whales and dolphins. It's also the most prolific type of plastic litter near coastlines.

Oceana found that Amazon generated 599 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2020, a 29% increase over the 2019 estimate of 465 million pounds. The estimated plastic waste, in the form of air pillows alone, could circle the Earth more than 600 times.

Amazon still uses tons of plastic annually in other forms of packaging like delivery bags and padded mailers. It says two-thirds of shipments in North America included Amazon-added plastic delivery packaging in December 2023. By December 2024, it aims to reduce this to a third. The company has retrofitted more than 120 automated packing machines that made plastic bags to create made-to-fit paper bags across the US, helping avoid the use of more than 130 million plastic bags this year.

Amazon employees staged a walkout in 2023 over the company's return-to-work policy and their displeasure at its impact on the environment. They stated that Amazon was failing to meet its self-imposed goals of reaching zero emissions by 2040.

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Amazon has replaced plastic air pillows with crumpled paper in its packaging worldwide

 

[Brickwizard]

It would help more if they carried a wider selection of boxes, Last time I orderd from them, the box was over 5 times bigger than the product

 

[passwordistaco]

Amazon packing paper is handy for lighting charcoal for the grill. Apply a drizzle of cooking oil before ignition.

 

[JohnRambo4]

Never fully understood the plastic in the ocean thing though. I live inland. I throw it in the garbage and it goes to a local landfill. Pretty much zero percent chance of it ending up in the ocean.

 

[Axeia]

Never fully understood the plastic in the ocean thing though. I live inland. I throw it in the garbage and it goes to a local landfill. Pretty much zero percent chance of it ending up in the ocean.

Landfill leaves it uncovered for a bit, the wind blows it away, it ends up in the ocean.

But even if your plastics mostly stay out of the ocean there's plenty of others who'll flytip or just throw it out of the car window etc. Less plastic is always better.
Sticking it under the ground in a landfill isn't exactly ideal either when paper could be used instead which is recyclable, biodegradable or if nothing else at least cleaner to burn. Not too mention the materials it's made out of are much less environmentally taxing.

 

[JohnRambo4]

Makes sense.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Something sensible for once! It's actually shocking.

Makes cleanup way nicer too. Those plastic air bubbles are a royal PITA to throw away unless you take the time to deflate them. Paper is much easier and can be used as firestarter.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Something sensible for once! It's actually shocking.

Makes cleanup way nicer too. Those plastic air bubbles are a royal PITA to throw away unless you take the time to deflate them. Paper is much easier and can be used as firestarter.

Those are big boy poppers. though in The USA , might have to worry about reports of gun reports !

 

[SRB]

Ah, so Amazon is going to reduce plastic waste, very nice. But won't this make them the leading cause of de-forestation and increase in CO2 due to a lot of it being used for starting fires?

 

[BuckarooBonzaii]

Those paper packing comes in handy when painting and for many other household uses.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

For at least a decade I got no protection in my shipped Amazon boxes, zip, zilch nada. Books ruined as boxes were often damaged. Finally got this crumpled paper for a memory card of all things last month.

 

[Xelions]

Just make more small boxes. You'll reduce paper, power and fuel usage - by using less packing, and fitting more per delivery vehicle.

 

[toooooot]

Next step will be packages for products lacking any plastic or fancy mixed paper with paint. Just plain brow boxes for anything ranging from computer components to kitchen appliances.
Instead, there will only be a barcode with a link to the proper product picture.

 

[OortCloud]

Next step will be packages for products lacking any plastic or fancy mixed paper with paint. Just plain brow boxes for anything ranging from computer components to kitchen appliances.
Instead, there will only be a barcode with a link to the proper product picture.

This is what we should be aiming for. Amazon should be working with suppliers to provide the goods themselves in ready-to-ship all-card/paper packaging. All they do is slap a delivery label on top and post it.

 

[Underdog]

I tend to think this is only just a PR stunt to appear concerned about "green" issues. The change probably costs them less so increasing their profit.