Less than 7% of the packaging in Amazon India fulfilment centres is single-use plastic
Image: The Amazon Spheres, part of the Amazon headquarters campus in Seattle, US. Photo: Courtesy of Biodin/Wikimedia Commons.
Amazon India has announced plans to eliminate single-use plastic from its packaging by June 2020 and introduce paper cushions to replace plastic dunnage in its fulfilment centres in India by the end of the year.
The e-commerce company said that the ‘paper cushions’ will replace plastic dunnage such as pillows and bubble wraps. Paper cushions will be used to fill the space inside packages to ensure the protection of the product during transit.
The company said that it has launched the environment-friendly and fully recyclable packaging solution in select fulfilment centres and will extend it across all fulfilment centres in the country by the end of the year.
The company said that its packaging material, corrugated boxes and paper cushions, contains 100% recycled content and is fully recyclable.
Furthermore, the plastic used in packaging mailers and bubble bags is made of 20% recycled content and is also recyclable.
Amazon is developing plastic-free alternatives for packaging
The company said that it is developing plastic-free alternatives for the packaging mailers, bubble bags, stretch wrap and tape, which will help Amazon India eliminate all forms of plastic in its packaging.
Amazon has pledged to collect plastic, equivalent to the plastic packaging material used by the fulfilment network in the country, from September 2019. The programme is an extension of the initiative being implemented in the State of Maharashtra for a year.
Last year, Amazon India launched packaging-free shipments (PFS) and expanded to 13 cities in less than a year. PFS minimises secondary packaging for individual shipments by securing multiple shipments together in a reusable crate or a corrugated box.
As part of Amazon India’s eco-friendly packaging initiatives, 60% of the pantry orders are now delivered in totes, removing secondary packaging.
The company said that it has partnered with brands to develop e-commerce friendly packaging. As of July 2019, Amazon India doubled the number of instances where products were shipped with only the manufacturer’s packaging. Also, the company doubled the instances of a customer receiving a box with multiple products in it last year, reducing packaging material used.
The e-commerce firm has also installed large-scale solar panel systems at eight fulfilment centres and two sortation centres. These are expected to generate 9MW of solar energy by the end of the year to meet the annual energy needs of the buildings.
The investment is part of Amazon’s goal to power its global infrastructure using 100% renewable energy.
Amazon said that these initiatives are part of its global sustainability goal to achieve Shipment Zero, the company’s vision to make Amazon shipments net zero carbon, with 50% of shipments net zero carbon by 2030.