SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Amazon.com, Inc. said it has replaced 95% of the plastic
air pillows from delivery packaging in North America with paper filler, and
expects to reach to the full removal by the end of fiscal 2024. Nearly all of
customer deliveries for Prime Day this year will not contain plastic air
pillows, the firm noted.

In a statement, the company said, 'We're constantly inventing and thinking big
to make our packaging small. We want to ensure that customers receive their
items undamaged, while using as little packaging as possible to avoid waste, and
prioritizing recyclable materials.'

The e-commerce giant's largest plastic packaging reduction effort in the region
is projected to avoid nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually.

The firm's multi-year effort to remove plastic delivery packaging from
fulfillment centers, including the transition from plastic air pillows to paper
filler, was initiated in October 2023 at its first U.S. automated fulfillment
center in Ohio.

As per the company testing, which also included an assessment by a third-party
engineer lab, paper filler offers the same, if not better, protection to
products than plastic air pillows. The paper filler is also curbside recyclable,
making it easier for customers to recycle at home, and made from 100% percent
recycled content.

In order to achieve the transitioning for 95% of shipments in less than a year,
Amazon coordinated across hundreds of fulfillment centers, and collaborated with
suppliers to source paper filler made from 100% recycled content.

The firm also worked with thousands of employees to change its machinery as well
as to host employee trainings for these new systems and machines.

The move is part of its ongoing investment in reducing packaging and increasing
curbside recyclability across all of its operations. In 2022, 11% of all
packages shipped by Amazon globally were without added Amazon delivery packaging
through Ships in Product Packaging program.

Amazon recently teamed up with the U.S. Department of Energy as part of its
efforts to invent new materials and recycling solutions.

The company is also piloting new technology with Glacier, a San Francisco-based
artificial intelligence or AI and robotics company, to use AI-powered robots to
automate the sorting of recyclables and collect real-time data on recycling
streams for companies. This will help reduce landfill waste and increase the use
of recycled materials in packaging.



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