A change is coming to the way you receive your Amazon deliveries, which marks a major win for the environment and customers.
The company recently announced that it has eliminated 95% of the plastic air pillows used in its packaging in North America and will switch completely to paper filler made from 100% recycled content by the end of the year.
"The removal of 95% of our plastic air pillows is another step in our path to avoid and reduce packaging—and part of our multi-year effort to remove plastic delivery packaging from North America fulfillment centers," VP of Mechatronics and Sustainable Packaging Pat Lindner said in a statement announcing the change.
With the switch, nearly 15 billion plastic pillows will be eliminated annually. Further, for this year's Prime Day sale, almost all customers received packages with the paper padding inside.
According to Amazon's press release, the paper filling has proved to be as effective, if not more effective, in keeping customers' orders protected during delivery, verified by a third-party engineering lab.
Additionally, the packing material can be tossed in a home recycling bin, making it a convenient switch for consumers, not to mention easier to deal with than popping a dozen air pillows every time they open an order.
"Most air pillows do not have effective recycling programs, even if you take the time to pop them one by one," Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics and a former Environment Protection Agency administrator, told GreenBiz.com. "Paper and other fiber products are suitable alternatives."
Despite their best efforts, many people fall into the trap of "wishcycling," which is what happens when you put a piece of trash in the recycling bin in hopes it'll get recycled. It's not always intentional and rarely malicious, but often comes from public confusion and uncertainty over what can be properly recycled and what should go in the trash.
The Amazon air pillows are certainly a candidate for tripping people up, but with the switch to easily recyclable paper, any doubt about which bin to use is gone. Plus, the less plastic, the less oil used, the less pollution, and the less microplastics in our oceans, drinking water, and eventually, our bodies.
Earlier this year, Walmart made a similar switch, replacing plastic e-commerce mailers with recyclable paper envelopes. The swap eliminated 2,000 tons of single-use plastic from the retailer, and it plans to have all its mailers, including those from marketplace sellers using Walmart's service, move to the paper option.
Amazon's upgrade to recyclable material is part of the company's ongoing efforts to reduce waste in its packaging, such as its "Ships in Product Packaging" program. Introduced in 2022, Amazon shipped 11% of its deliveries in their original package without added Amazon materials.
While the packaging change is certainly a positive move for the company, Amazon remains far from a sustainable business.
The company, a behemoth global polluter, has been documented making grand environmental commitments — such as promising to make half of its shipments carbon neutral by 2030 — and then quietly abandoning those promises later on.
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