The kind of plastic used to bundle your e-commerce supply is devastating the world’s oceans and but, Amazon refuses to commit to cut back plastic in the USA — its largest market — and globally. Amazon, for the sake of its clients and the oceans, must do extra.
E-commerce plastic is generally fabricated from plastic movie, the skinny, versatile, plastic buying bag-type of plastic. Research have discovered plastic movie 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 dedicated to part out single-use plastic packaging in lots of high markets however not within the U.S. or globally. This can be a drawback as a result of the U.S. accounts for almost 70% of the corporate’s whole gross sales and since different markets — the place Amazon has not but phased out plastic — face important plastic air pollution issues.
Sadly, the quantity of plastic utilized by the corporate within the U.S. seems to be rising quickly. Oceana, in a new report, estimates that Amazon’s plastic packaging waste within the U.S. grew by greater than 9% to 208 million kilos in 2022.
As a result of the corporate refuses to make a world dedication, Oceana estimates that a considerable amount of plastic packaging utilized by the corporate continues to turn into marine plastic air pollution. Utilizing information from a peer-reviewed study printed within the journal Science in 2020, Oceana estimates that as much as 22 million kilos of Amazon’s international plastic packaging waste from 2022 will find yourself on this planet’s waterways and seas.
The corporate’s lack of dedication isn’t just letting the oceans down, it’s additionally letting down clients. In accordance with research by YouGov, 85% of Amazon clients within the U.S. reported caring about plastic air pollution and most Prime members need the corporate to vary. In distinction, Walmart — at the moment the most important retailer on this planet in keeping with Forbes’ rankings — pledged to remove using plastic mailers for packages shipped to its clients within the U.S. and globally.
As a substitute of committing to a discount within the U.S., Amazon continues to counsel to many purchasers that they’ll recycle e-commerce plastic packaging. A recent investigation by U.S. PIRG and Environment America discovered that the “drop-off areas” that Amazon directs clients to for plastic recycling are usually not dependable in guaranteeing plastic packaging is recycled. Volunteers put 93 monitoring units inside Amazon plastic packaging and positioned them in recycling retailer drop-off bins throughout the nation. Solely 4 packages ended up in recycling facilities. 13 ended up in landfills, two went to an incinerator and three went to a port facility. The remaining ended up in recycling dead-ends (e.g., by no means leaving the shop or being warehoused).
Amazon can remedy this drawback — it’s simply selecting to not. In October 2022, the corporate introduced that it had “stopped packing items in single-use plastic delivery bags at Amazon fulfillment centers across Europe,” and has beforehand reported that it has done the same in India. Amazon has additionally reported replacing plastic air pillows with recyclable paper in Europe, India, and Australia.
Final 12 months, largely as a consequence of its efforts to cut back plastic packaging in these different markets, Amazon disclosed its whole plastic packaging use for orders shipped by means of its international operations community decreased by 11.6% in 2022 in comparison with 2021. This can be a nice begin, but it surely isn’t sufficient. The dimensions of the corporate’s methods to cut back plastic don’t but match its huge footprint. As an organization constructed on taking dangers with thrilling new concepts, it must be leaning into improvements that present nice promise for plastic discount — like reusable packaging.
Amazon can remedy its plastic drawback on a world foundation now and sooner or later if it chooses to take action. It’s nicely previous time for Amazon to step up and assist save the oceans by committing to part out plastic packaging in its largest market — the U.S. — and making a companywide dedication to cut back the entire quantity of plastic packaging it makes use of by a minimum of one-third by 2030.
