Amazon eliminates 15 billion plastic air pillows
Technews Industry Guide: Sustainable Manufacturing 2024
Electrical Power & Protection
By Heather Clancy, VP and editor at large, GreenBiz Group.
Amazon has replaced its single-use plastic air pillows with recycled paper in 95% of its delivery boxes in North America. The move will cut an estimated 15 billion of these cushions annually. Approximately 40% of Amazon orders were shipped like this. The Seattle-based retailer had cut 37 150 tons of plastic packaging since 2020, but it still used 85 916 tons of single-use plastic in 2022. Eliminating the pillows represents Amazon’s biggest plastic reduction yet. The company is phasing out single-use plastics across its worldwide delivery network. It has eliminated extra packaging completely by shipping about 11% of items in their original boxes.
“Wherever we can, we use recycled content. But sometimes automation technologies make that more challenging,” said Pat Lindner, vice president of mechatronics and sustainable packaging at Amazon. “Even if you can collect them, used air pillows are difficult to recycle because they often jam sorters. Paper and other fibre products are suitable alternatives.” Aside from being eligible for curbside recycling, paper absorbs drops and other stresses more effectively than pillows. ”Paper fills ‘crumple zones’ and absorbs energy from impacts, rather than allowing items to bounce around,” said Clint Haynes, vice president of Stress Engineering, which helped Amazon replace the air pillows.
Amazon tested the changes in an innovation centre near its Seattle headquarters. The company replaced the feeders for the plastic air pillows with canisters that dispense the paper. “Our new process gives employees more flexibility, and allows them to be more thoughtful about their packaging,” concluded Lindner.
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