Amazon announces 'largest reduction in plastic packaging,' doing away with air pillows

Amazon is changing how it boxes packages, swapping out plastic air pillows with recycled paper, a move the company says is more eco-friendly and will provide just as much protection, "if not better."

The change, announced Thursday, is part of a multi-year plan to remove plastic delivery packaging from fulfillment centers in North America. 

The company says replacing the roughly 15 billion plastic air pillows used every year with recycled paper is the "largest reduction in plastic packaging in North America to date."

Amazon aims to “fully remove” plastic air pillows in packages by the end of the year, according to Pat Lindner, vice president of mechatronics and sustainable packaging. He adds that most, if not all, packages ordered and delivered on Prime Day in July will be packed with paper filler. 

"We want to ensure that customers receive their items undamaged, while using as little packaging as possible to avoid waste, and prioritizing recyclable materials," Amazon said in a news release.

Paper is in, plastic is out, Amazon says 

The shift to paper filler began in October, when Amazon began to test the eco-friendly alternative at a fulfillment center in Ohio, the company said.

A change in machinery, employee cooperation and a new supplier helped give the company the ability to transition to paper filler for 95% of shipments in less than a year, Amazon said.

The switch from plastic to paper is one example of ongoing efforts by Amazon to reduce waste over the years, citing campaigns, programs and partnerships that aim to “reduce packaging increase curbside recyclability across all operations and ensure products get to customers undamaged.” 

Millions of pounds of waste created by Amazon packaging, study finds

Amazon generated 599 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2020, an increase of about 20% from 2019, according to Oceana, an advocacy group dedicated to ocean conservation that reported arriving at that figure after analyzing e-commerce packaging data.

Packaging waste from air pillows alone could circle the Earth more than 600 times, according the study.

"Oceana estimates that up to 23.5 million pounds of Amazon’s plastic packaging waste entered and polluted the world’s waterways and oceans in 2020, the equivalent of dumping a delivery van payload of plastic into the oceans every 67 minutes," the group wrote.

At the time Oceana urged Amazon to “substantially reduce its plastic footprint” by banning the use of single-use plastic package worldwide. The company should also offer customers plastic-free packaging at checkout and consistently report on its plastic footprint, among other measures.

In its statement about eliminating plastic air pillows, Amazon said that teams across the company "are working every day to further our sustainability initiatives in our operations and provide customers with a more sustainable shopping experience."

Amazon's most recent sustainability report can be found here.