(Photo: Pexels/Tima Miroshnichenko)
This year, Amazon is determined to reduce its plastic usage by ditching plastic air pillows for paper fillers.
Amazon Replaces Plastic Air Pillows With Paper Fillers
Amazon is already making progress toward eliminating all plastic air pillows from its North American delivery packaging. The company declared on Thursday that it will no longer utilize plastic air packaging by the end of the year, having switched out 95% of the plastic air pillows with paper filling.
According to Amazon, this adjustment will eliminate over 15 billion plastic air pillows every year. Unlike conventional packaging, paper filler is composed entirely of recycled materials, making it simple for consumers to recycle at home. The paper infill "offers the same, if not better, protection," according to Amazon.
While Amazon has shifted from single-use plastic delivery bags in Europe and India to made-to-fit paper packaging in Australia and Japan, the company has been sluggish in the US in adopting paper packaging. At an Ohio warehouse, Amazon eliminated plastic air pillows and bubble mailers last year in favor of recyclable paper packaging.
The move will be helpful as a report from Truth in Recycling suggests that most plastic films from the E-commerce company aren't recycled and end up in landfills, waterways, roadways, or forests. Researchers fitted tracking devices into ninety-three bundles of Amazon plastic wrapping to recycle plastic film and dropped them off at retail locations specified by How2Recycle, an Amazon partner. Out of the 93, just four were sent to a facility that sorts plastic for recycling. According to the trackers, most packaging was either turned into non-recyclable products or ended up in landfills and incinerators.
Per the researchers, the corporation should stop marketing its plastic film packaging as recyclable, abandon recycling as a fix, and put more of its attention toward cutting back on the quantity of plastic it uses in the first place.
The announcement about the shift from plastic air pillows to paper fillers came after nonprofit conservation group Oceana estimated that the corporation produced 208 million pounds of plastic garbage in the US in 2022 due to its packaging. While Oceana applauds Amazon's pledge to phase out plastic air cushions in North America, it also recognizes that more has to be done.
Per Matt Littlejohn, Senior vice president of strategic initiative at Oceana, although this is a big step forward for the business, Amazon must maintain this momentum and carry out its multiyear commitment to move its fulfillment centers in North America away from plastic. Oceana wants to see single-use plastic packaging phased out "everywhere it sells and ships."
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Why Paper Is Better Than Plastic?
Paper is often preferred over plastic because it is the most recyclable product. Second, it is biodegradable. If paper isn't recycled and ends up in a landfill or is littered, it biodegrades faster than plastic. Third, it supports sustainable forestry.
Trees become renewable when they are replanted through sustainable forestry. Deforestation is still a problem, for sure, but it mostly results from the clearing of land for farming. The majority of paper products originate from purposefully managed, sustainable forests.
However, another study suggests several factors must be considered to determine whether paper bags are better than plastic. This reportedly depends on the energy used to make the bag during manufacturing, its durability, whether it is recyclable, and how quickly it decomposes. Regarding durability, plastic can be used more often than paper bags.
RELATED ARTICLE: Biodegradable Plastic Can Be Seasoned To Make Them Stronger [Study]
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