Amazon Plastic Use Flat Despite Shift to Paper

Resource Recycling (07/22/26) Smith, Antoinette

Although Amazon has repeatedly touted its push to use recyclable packaging materials for shipments, its latest sustainability report showed that the global e-tailer's use of plastic delivery packaging remained flat last year. For the calendar year, the company’s volumes of single-use plastic packaging in North America decreased only marginally to 68,196 metric tons (mt). Even so, by converting automated packaging machines across North America to use paper-based materials, Amazon was able to avoid roughly 288 million single-use plastic bags in 2025, more than twice the 134 million reported a year prior. Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president at shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow, remarks, "It is good to see that they continue to convert operations away from the flexible plastic mailers.”

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