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After years of criticism over the extreme use of plastic, the world’s largest retailer seems to be making progress in lowering its plastic footprint.
Amazon introduced in its newest sustainability report on Tuesday that orders shipped from its success facilities used 85,916 metric tons of single-use plastic in 2022 — an 11.6 % lower from the quantity utilized in 2021.
The corporate attributed this drop to the elevated use of paper-based packaging, in addition to a higher effort to ship objects of their authentic packaging – with out including Amazon-branded packaging. Amazon has additionally stopped utilizing non-recyclable baggage constituted of combined supplies, saying on Tuesday it was “phasing out” padded plastic mailers — these ubiquitous blue-and-white envelopes dotted with the Amazon emblem — in favor of “recyclable options.”
Eliminating padded plastic mailers is a “huge, huge deal,” mentioned Matt Littlejohn, senior vp for strategic initiatives for the nonprofit Oceana, although he known as on the corporate to set a concrete timeline to take action. He known as Amazon’s sustainability report “excellent news for the oceans,” as plastic wrap, similar to the type utilized in Amazon’s packaging, is among the most common shapes of plastic marine litter and is the deadliest type of plastic for marine animals.
Plastics additionally produce other results: they’re constituted of fossil fuels and are a major source of climate pollutionand so they trigger poisonous chemical pollution bee every stage of their life cycle. In the meantime, the US recycling charge for plastics is honest 5 percentwhich means the overwhelming majority of plastic is thrown away, incinerated or despatched to a landfill.
Amazon’s 2022 sustainability report is the primary to incorporate a quantitative estimate of the corporate’s single-use plastic footprint; beforehand, the corporate’s solely different estimate got here from a weblog publish final December. Organizations like Oceana had to try this publish their own estimates and had known as for extra transparency – generally below stress from buyers. Over the previous three years, shareholder advocacy teams have repeatedly launched resolutions demanding that Amazon disclose the quantity of plastic it makes use of and cut back it by a 3rd by 2030. One decision, co-sponsored in December 2021 by Inexperienced Century Capital Administration and As You Sow, was supported by nearly half of Amazon’s shareholders.
Now environmentalists say Amazon seems to be heading in the right direction, in contrast to many different huge plastic customers. Even firms which have signed up with a prominent promise to scale back the usage of virgin plastic have gone within the improper path: lately, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mars and lots of others have increase within the weight of their virgin plastic packaging.
Nonetheless, the 86,000 tons of plastic utilized in Amazon success facilities is rather a lot, and Douglass Guernsey, a shareholder legal professional for Inexperienced Century Capital Administration, mentioned Amazon wants to maneuver a lot sooner to exchange different kinds of plastic packaging, similar to unpadded plastic mailers, with reusable options or packaging constituted of recycled paper. He known as for third-party verification of Amazon’s single-use plastic discount, and for the corporate to launch extra details about its use of plastic: “What sort of plastic does Amazon use?” Guernsey requested. “How a lot is designed to be recyclable?”
Guernsey additionally criticized Amazon for not making a forward-looking, time-bound dedication to lowering plastic use. “I would really like them to make a press release saying, ‘We’re phasing out single-use plastics. We’re Amazon, we are able to try this,” he mentioned.
Littlejohn mentioned Amazon wants to verify its plastic reductions are mirrored within the firm’s provide chains. Whereas the numbers quoted in Amazon’s 2022 sustainability report doubtless apply to most Amazon orders, which ship from the corporate’s success facilities, they do not cowl orders shipped from third-party sellers’ doorsteps. Amazon doesn’t disclose what portion of its gross sales come from third-party sellers.
Amazon declined to reply to a sequence of questions on plastic use, however an organization spokesperson mentioned they “proceed to prioritize supplies which can be recyclable and proceed to search out options to plastic.” The spokesperson famous a few of Amazon’s beforehand revealed developments, together with the elimination of single-use plastic air cushions in Europe and Australia.
Each Guernsey and Littlejohn pledged to proceed campaigning for stronger motion from Amazon. “Traders care about this,” Guernsey mentioned. “The shareholder course of has been extremely vital… and we are going to proceed to make use of it to stress the corporate to scale back its carbon footprint.”
This text initially appeared in grist bee https://grist.org/accountability/after-years-of-criticism-amazon-appears-to-be-cutting-down-on-plastics/. Grist is a non-profit, impartial media group devoted to telling tales about local weather options and a simply future. Extra info on Grist.org
