Press Release: 2024-12-02

Our Amazon wishlist: Less plastic shipping waste

 

We asked Amazon to reduce plastic shipping waste. Now we need them to deliver.

Tell Amazon: Eliminate plastic waste

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Amazon will make more than half a billion shipments this holiday season. That’s roughly four orders for every single American household from Thanksgiving to New Years.

The problem is that many of those items will come packaged in plastic that can’t be recycled, generating mountains and mountains of waste that pollute oceans, landfills or even the gutters in our neighborhood. 

Packaging uses almost half the globe’s plastic, making it an enormous source of pollution. 

Amazon’s shipping waste

It’s frustrating to see waste pile up in your trashcan, but plastic waste is more than just an annoyance. When plastic goes to landfills, it can break down into dangerous microplastics, or release toxic chemicals like PFAS. 

None of this has to be the case. Amazon is a retail giant with the power to keep tons of plastic out of landfills by choosing to use sustainable, non-plastic packaging. 

How PIRG is helping Amazon reduce plastic waste

PIRG raised the alarm in 2023 when a group of volunteers tracked the journeys of 93 bundles of Amazon packaging, and discovered that — despite being labeled as recyclable — ​​none of the plastic ended up in locations that guaranteed the packaging would actually be recycled.

In response to the test, 138,000 people signed petitions to the company, urging it to reduce single-use plastic in its shipments.

And Amazon listened. Amazon committed to phasing out padded plastic shipping envelopes in favor of recyclable alternatives, and promised to remove plastic air pillows from virtually all North American deliveries.

But, Amazon’s announcements didn’t include a deadline for when it will phase out its padded plastic shipping envelopes, nor a commitment to eliminate all single-use plastic in its shipments.

Amazon can and should do better. That means we’re going to keep calling them out. Are you in? 

Tell Amazon: Eliminate plastic packaging from shipments.