Often topping rankings of the world's biggest polluters, Amazon has taken a significant step by replacing 95% of the plastic air cushions used in its North American delivery packaging with paper. By the end of the year, the totality of these cushioning and filling solutions should be completely eliminated. This change would save nearly 15 billion plastic cushions a year.
Last year, the group founded by Jeff Bezos inaugurated its first automated distribution center in the United States, in Ohio, to test the elimination of plastic packaging.
"In our testing of the filler paper, which included evaluation by a third-party engineering laboratory, we found that it offers equal, if not better, protection to products than plastic air cushions." says Amazon.
In addition to air cushions, Amazon has reportedly managed to eliminate almost all plastics by switching to paper packaging for 95% of shipments in less than a year.
In addition, Amazon is working on new materials and recycling solutions, in collaboration with the US Department of Energy and innovative companies like Glacier, to automate the sorting of recyclables and improve recycling flows.
