Amazon India announced its commitment to eliminate single use plastic from its packaging by June 2020. This follows Flipkart’s announcement last week, where it committed to eliminating single use plastic in packaging in its supply chain by March 2021.
Amazon will introduce ‘paper cushions’, which will replace plastic dunnage like air pillows and bubble wraps across its 65 fulfilment centres (FC) in India. Paper cushions which are fully recyclable have already been introduced in select FCs and will be used to fill the void space inside packages to ensure that the product is well protected in transit; this will be extended across all FCs in the country by the year end.
The company has ensured that its packaging material - corrugate boxes and paper cushions contains as high as 100 per cent recycled content and is also fully recyclable. Amazon India is aggressively developing plastic free alternatives for packaging mailers, bubble bags, stretch wrap and tape used in the packaging which will help the company eliminate all forms of plastic used in its packaging.
“Amazon India is committed to a sustainable supply chain. Today, less than 7 per cent of our packaging material consists of single use plastic and we are working towards eliminating its usage completely in our buildings by June 2020. We will also help educate our sellers who directly fulfil customer orders to join us in this directional change in packaging. This investment in protecting the environment ensures a triple win – it is good for our planet, good for our customers and community and good for the business”said Akhil Saxena, Vice President, Customer Fulfilment, Amazon India.
Amazon’s Packaging-Free Shipments programme, launched last year has expanded to 13 cities. With packaging-free shipments, the company minimizes secondary packaging required for individual shipments by securing multiple shipments together in a reusable crate or a corrugate box. In continuation of its commitment to collection and recycling of plastic packaging material, the company has pledged to collect plastic, equivalent to all of the plastic packaging material used by the Amazon Fulfilment network from the current month. This is an extension of the initiative which has been underway in Maharashtra for a year.
Amazon has installations of large-scale solar panel systems at eight fulfilment centres and two sortation centres. This will help Amazon generate close to 9 megawatts units of solar energy by this year end.These initiatives are a part of Amazon’s global sustainability goal to help achieve Shipment Zero, the company’s vision to make all Amazon shipments net zero carbon, with 50 per cent of all shipments net zero carbon by 2030.