The same year, 2022, company replaced plastic sleeves in EU with paper and cardboard, and cut plastic packaging globally by 11.6%
The amount of plastic packaging waste created by Amazon has increased in the US even as the online retail giant sought to phase out plastics elsewhere in the world, a report claims, amid growing pressure for a global treaty to end plastic pollution.
Amazon created 208m pounds (94m kg) of plastic packaging in the US in 2022, equal to the weight of nearly 14,000 large African elephants, which is a 9.8% increase on the amount of packaging it produced in 2021, according to Oceana, an American marine conservation group that used industry data and Amazon’s market announcements to form its analysis.
The increase in 2022 occurred even as Amazon made headway in reducing its plastic use elsewhere in the world, cutting its plastic packaging globally by 11.6% compared to a year previously. In Europe, the company has replaced its plastic delivery sleeves with paper and cardboard, amid new rules from the European Union aimed at stamping out single-use plastics.
The market regulates itself vs the importance of (EU) regulations.
How else would they put fragile items in with no protection and then throw away the paper strip that covers the glue INSIDE my package.
They have a cardboard/paper alternative but I bet it takes time, money, and training to replace the old plastic machines and if the old FCs are growing and doing more volume faster than Amazon it’s replacing them you’d get both Amazon being able to say they’re eliminating them AND their total plastic use going up
I hope they can eliminate them sooner rather than later but there are so many Climate impacts for a company that large I’m not sure it’s even the most important thing I I’d want to see from them
This one is kinda a tossup, a box for a small item typically requires more carbon to ship and produce… Nonstandard boxes also feed into this as well
208 millipounds doesn’t seem that bad, to be honest. That’s like, less than a quarter pound cheeseburger.
I like the plastic and don’t think it’s going to change in the US or Canada anytime soon. There’s a fundamental difference in package deliveries in the US, a carrier or Amazon delivers the package to your doorstep and leaves it outside. Rain, sleet, snow, and porch pirates.
In most of the world, it is delivered inside to reception or handed personally to someone at your house or the next house with a slip. Cardboard is fine. At one of my places like this, it’s absurd to them to leave the package at my doorstep when I’m not there. But I have finally trained all the local companies to do so. And they all think I’m crazy. So the local drivers will WhatsApp me a picture of the delivery or call 7 times to make sure I’m not an idiot before leaving the package.
Why don’t you get a package drop off box that you can keep locked? We recently bought one at work and it’s great.
I don’t think it’s worth it to have plastic packaging just because some people have an insecure package dropoff.
