Amazon has replaced 95% of its plastic air pillows from delivery packaging in North America with paper filler, working toward full removal by the end of the year. Source: Timberbiz
The company said that it wanted to ensure that customers received their items undamaged, while using as little packaging as possible to avoid waste, and prioritizing recyclable materials.
The removal of 95% of the plastic air pillows is another step in the path to avoid and reduce packaging and part of the company’s multi-year effort to remove plastic delivery packaging from North America fulfillment centres.
To date, this will be Amazon’s largest plastic packaging reduction effort in North America and will avoid nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually.
Last October, Amazon announced its first US automated fulfillment centre in Ohio would eliminate plastic delivery packaging, including the transition from plastic air pillows to paper filler. This work in Ohio allowed Amazon to test and learn and move quickly on transitioning to paper filler for 95% of its shipments in less than a year.
To achieve this, teams collaborated with suppliers to source paper filler made from 100% recycled content, while also coordinating the transition across hundreds of fulfillment centres. This included working with thousands of employees to change machinery as well as to host employee trainings for these new systems and machines.
Through testing of paper filler, which included an assessment by a third-party engineer lab, Amazon discovered that it offers the same, if not better, protection to products than plastic air pillows. The paper filler is also curb side recyclable, making it easier for customers to recycle at home, and made from 100% percent recycled content.
This effort builds on Amazon’s ongoing investment in reducing packaging and increasing curb side recyclability across all of operations, while ensuring products get to customers undamaged.
