Amazon must do better with its packaging for our oceans’ sake

The type of plastic used to package your e-commerce delivery is devastating the world’s oceans and yet, Amazon refuses to commit to reduce plastic in the United States — its largest market — and globally. Amazon, for the sake of its customers and the oceans, needs to do more.

E-commerce plastic is mostly made of plastic film, the thin, flexible, plastic shopping bag-type of plastic. Studies have found plastic film to be the most common form of marine plastic litter in nearshore ocean areas and the deadliest type of plastic to large marine animals.

Amazon has committed to phase out single-use plastic packaging in many top markets but not in the U.S. or globally. This is a problem because the U.S. accounts for nearly 70% of the company’s total sales and because other markets — where Amazon has not yet phased out plastic — face significant plastic pollution problems.

Unfortunately, the amount of plastic used by the company in the U.S. appears to be growing rapidly. Oceana, in a new report, estimates that Amazon’s plastic packaging waste in the U.S. grew by more than 9% to 208 million pounds in 2022.

Because the company refuses to make a global commitment, Oceana estimates that a large amount of plastic packaging used by the company continues to become marine plastic pollution. Using data from a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Science in 2020, Oceana estimates that up to 22 million pounds of Amazon’s global plastic packaging waste from 2022 will end up in the world’s waterways and seas. 

The company’s lack of commitment is not just letting the oceans down, it’s also letting down customers. According to research by YouGov, 85% of Amazon customers in the U.S. reported being concerned about plastic pollution and most Prime members want the company to change. In contrast, Walmart — currently the largest retailer in the world according to Forbes’ rankings — pledged to eliminate the use of plastic mailers for packages shipped to its customers in the U.S. and globally.

Instead of committing to a reduction in the U.S., Amazon continues to suggest to many customers that they can recycle e-commerce plastic packaging. A recent investigation by U.S. PIRG and Environment America found that the “drop-off locations” that Amazon directs customers to for plastic recycling are not reliable in ensuring plastic packaging is recycled. Volunteers put 93 tracking devices inside Amazon plastic packaging and placed them in recycling store drop-off bins across the country. Only four packages ended up in recycling centers. Thirteen ended up in landfills, two went to an incinerator and three went to a port facility. The rest ended up in recycling dead-ends (e.g., never leaving the store or being warehoused).

Amazon can solve this problem — it is just choosing not to. In October 2022, the company announced that it had “stopped packing items in single-use plastic delivery bags at Amazon fulfillment centers across Europe,” and has previously reported that it has done the same in India. Amazon has also reported replacing plastic air pillows with recyclable paper in Europe, India, and Australia.

Last year, largely due to its efforts to reduce plastic packaging in these other markets, Amazon disclosed its total plastic packaging use for orders shipped through its global operations network decreased by 11.6% in 2022 compared to 2021. This is a great start, but it isn’t enough. The scale of the company’s strategies to reduce plastic do not yet match its vast footprint. As a company built on taking risks with exciting new ideas, it should be leaning into innovations that show great promise for plastic reduction — like reusable packaging.

Amazon can solve its plastic problem on a global basis now and in the future if it chooses to do so. It is well past time for Amazon to step up and help save the oceans by committing to phase out plastic packaging in its largest market — the U.S. — and making a companywide commitment to reduce the total amount of plastic packaging it uses by at least one-third by 2030.