(VitalNews.org) – Amazon has announced that they are shifting away from the plastic air pillows that are used for packaging North American orders and instead, they will be using recycled paper.
They stated that they’ve already replaced over ninety percent of their plastic pillows with the paper filler and they are working on removing one hundred percent of it by the end of the year. Amazon stated, “We want to ensure that customers receive their items undamaged while using as little packaging as possible to avoid waste, and prioritizing recyclable materials.”
This is the company’s largest reduction in plastic packaging effort in North America to date and this will remove almost fifteen billion plastic air pillows annually. For Prime Day, they are expecting that none of the packages being sent out will contain the plastic air pillows.
Amazon has faced criticism from people and environmental groups on the amount of plastic and waste that their business creates. Matt Littlejohn, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at Oceana, spoke out saying that Amazon’s move to less plastic is important but that there’s still more to be done.
Said Littlejohn, “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.”
He continued, “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.”
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