Beauty Industry, Beauty Launches

Amazon Cuts Plastic Use in North America

Amazon replaces plastic air pillows with recycled paper fillers in response to Oceana campaigns.

June 20, 2024

Assistant Editor

Amazon has replaced 95% of the plastic air pillows from delivery packaging in North America with 100% recycled paper filler. This announcement follows years of campaigning by Oceana and its allies to reduce Amazon’s use of plastic packaging.

The change is Amazon’s largest plastic packaging reduction effort in North America. It prioritizes paper because it is an easy-to-recycle material. The paper filler is curbside recyclable and made from 100% percent recycled content.

With this change, Amazon says it expects to avoid nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually. The decision is part of Amazon’s multiyear effort to remove plastic delivery packaging from all of its North America fulfillment centers.

Oceana’s campaign is calling on Amazon to release reports showing its plastic packaging waste footprint. The organization often campaigns outside Amazon’s headquarters, meets with company representatives, and advocates for shareholder resolutions.

Matt Littlejohn, Oceana’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, says, “While this is a significant step forward for the company, Amazon needs to build on this momentum and fulfill its multiyear commitment to transition its North America fulfillment centers away from plastic. Then, the company should expand these efforts and also push innovations like reusable packaging to move away from single-use packaging everywhere it sells and ships.”

Pat Lindner, VP of Mechatronics and Sustainable Packaging at Amazon comments, “We are working towards full removal in North America by the end of year—and will continue to innovate, test, and scale in order to prioritize curbside recyclable materials.”

Amazon will also phase out plastic air pillows in Australia, and nearly all single-use plastic packaging, including air pillows, in India and throughout Europe.

Does Paper Filler Offer the Same Protection?

Before making the change, Amazon had to test its paper filler, which included a third-party engineering lab assessment. Amazon says it discovered that the paper filler offers the same, if not better, protection for products than plastic air pillows.

Making the Transition

Last October, Amazon transitioned from plastic pillows to paper filler at its fulfillment center in Ohio. “This work in Ohio allowed us to test and learn and move quickly on transitioning to paper filler for 95% of our shipments in less than a year,” Amazon states.

Thousands of employees were trained on new systems as Amazon changed the machinery in its fulfillment centers.

Amazon collaborated with suppliers to source paper filler made from 100% recycled content, while also coordinating the transition across hundreds of its fulfillment centers.