Amazon Replaces Plastic Air Pillows with Recycled Paper in North America
Amazon is replacing plastic air pillows used for packaging in North America with recycled paper, as it is more environmentally friendly and, according to the company, paper is simply more effective.
The company announced that it has already replaced 95% of plastic air pillows with paper fill in North America and aims to eliminate them completely by the end of the year.
This initiative represents the largest effort to reduce plastic packaging by the company in North America to date, and will eliminate nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows per year.
According to Amazon, almost all customer shipments for this year's Prime Day, which takes place next month, will contain airless paper cushions.
For years, the giant corporation has faced criticism from environmental groups, particularly Oceana, a non-profit organization that has published its own reports on Amazon's use of plastic packaging.
Matt Littlejohn, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Oceana, stated that Amazon's efforts to reduce plastic packaging are good news, but the company can still do more.
He stated in a prepared statement: "While this is an important step forward for the company, Amazon must build on this momentum and fulfill its multi-year commitment to abandon plastic in its North American distribution centers. Next, the company should extend these efforts and also promote innovations such as reusable packaging to move away from single-use packaging everywhere it sells and ships."
Amazon began phasing out plastic air pillows in October at an automated distribution center in Ohio. The company stated that it was able to test and learn in this center, which helped it quickly transition to recycled paper fill.