Amazon Is Ditching Plastic in Its Packaging in North America

Amazon announced today that it has replaced 95% of its plastic air pillows in North America with paper filling. The e-commerce giant is on track to have them fully removed from its packaging by the end of the year.

In a press release, Amazon wrote that North American packages have almost fully transitioned over from plastic air pillows to traceable paper filling, as illustrated in the image below. The company claims that when it fully transitions over to 100% recyclable paper in its packaging in the region, it will "avoid nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows a year," touting that in its upcoming Prime Day, "nearly all" of its deliveries will not contain plastic air pillows.

"I'm proud of the cross-Amazon collaboration to make a positive impact on the customer delivery experience with easier to recycle materials. It's a great example of how we thoughtfully test and scale new solutions to protect our customer experience," Amazon VP of Mechatronics and Sustainable Packaging Pat Lindner wrote in the press release. "We are working towards full removal in North America by end of year and will continue to innovate, test, and scale in order to prioritize curbside recyclable materials."

The announcement is part of a glacial movement Amazon has been making over the last several years to minimize its plastic footprint in its packaging globally. In June 2020, Amazon India eliminated single-use plastic filling in its packaging across all its fulfillment centers, with Amazon Europe following suit roughly two years later. Last October, an Amazon fulfillment center in Ohio fully switched from plastic to paper in its packaging.

Amazon has remained one the most popular third-party retailers in North America, particularly the United States, when it comes to having items delivered to you, from household items to physical media. However, as the non-profit ocean conservation group Oceana published last April, Amazon has had a big issue with its single-use plastic footprint in the U.S., estimating that in 2022, the e-commerce giant generated 208 million pounds of plastic packaging waste.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.