ISSUE BRIEF: AMAZON’S PLASTIC PROBLEM
Amazon is making a name for itself in the big leagues of global plastic polluters, joining the ranks of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Unilever. A December 2020 report from Oceana estimates that Amazon produced a staggering 465 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2019, more than 22 million pounds of which is now polluting the world’s oceans and waterways. As shocking as these statistics are, the situation today is undoubtedly far worse as Amazon’s sales increased by 38% in 2020 due to a massive spike in sales driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly how big Amazon’s plastic pollution footprint is because the company does not divulge those numbers in its sustainability reports, just as it has refrained from reporting the number of coronavirus deaths within its workforce (a workforce that’s currently considered more “essential” than that of some grocery stores). The only numbers Amazon has revealed about its packaging footprint are in its 2020 sustainability report, where the company claims to have reduced shipping weights by 665,000 tons since 2008 using lighter flexible plastic mailers over cardboard boxes. Of course, cardboard can easily be recycled while the iconic blue and white amazon plastic envelopes are very hard to recycle at limited locations.
Amazon’s 2020 sustainability report revealed that the company’s carbon footprint grew by 6.77 million metric tons in 2019, to 51.17 million metric tons (mmt) of CO24, the equivalent of more than 22 million barrels of oil. It’s unclear how the company accounts for emissions from plastic packaging; packaging is lumped into a large category of “Other indirect emissions” accounting for 12.44 mmt of CO24. Further, Amazon’s 2020 sustainability report doesn’t mention their plastic mailers at all or how much plastic film it’s using (Oceana estimates the number of air pillows alone used in 2019 would circle the earth 500 times). Without transparency, Amazon’s sustainability efforts are as thin as the lightweight plastic mailers that they claim are both “recyclable” (they’re not) and help to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions (they don’t). Let’s break it down.
Amazon wrongly puts the responsibility for dealing with its plastic waste onto its customers. To even have the hope of recycling the plastic film that makes up their mailers, air pillows, and bubble wrap, the consumer must drive to a special collection location that could be miles from their home, which requires research to find a facility, valuable time, and the use of fossil fuels (a major contributor to climate change) to drive there. Even if the consumer were motivated to take on this onerous and time-consuming task for each and every package ordered online, a paltry 4% of plastic films are recycled in the U.S.
Worse still, taxpayers pay for the millions of pounds of discarded plastic trash that Amazon adds to municipal recycling facilities, landfills, and incinerators, while Amazon, itself, paid just 1.2% in federal taxes on its $13.9 billion pre-tax income in 2019. To be fair, Amazon has announced that it aims to recycle 7,000 tons of plastic film in-house. Though it hasn’t said when it will reach this goal, if the company did manage to achieve that in 2019, it would still leave 451 million tons of plastic waste polluting our planet in a single year, after subtracting the 3% that might have been recycled. The reality is that although Amazon calls its packaging recyclable, an overwhelming majority of their plastic packaging will not be recycled.
It’s highly doubtful that using lightweight plastic mailers instead of cardboard reduces greenhouse gas emissions, even though plastic reduces shipping weights slightly. In 2019, Amazon pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2040 and to make 50% of its shipments net-zero carbon by 2030 through its “Shipment Zero” initiative, taking into account the lifecycle emissions of packaging. However, Amazon does not share how it calculates these lifecycle emissions nor how much plastic packaging it uses.
Made from a combination of chemicals (many of which are harmful to wildlife and human health) and either fossil fuels or ethane--a byproduct of hydrofracked gas, plastics have a hefty carbon footprint at all stages of their lifecycle. From extraction of raw materials to manufacturing to transportation to “disposal”, plastics release greenhouse gases. In fact, if plastics were a country, it would be the fifth largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world.
The plastic pollution crisis is the climate crisis, and fracked plastic is an environmental problem at every stage. Rather than decreasing its carbon impact, Amazon’s increased use of plastic is fueling the climate crisis. In fact, the petrochemical industry considers Amazon’s shift to plastic packaging as a major driver for the consumption of fossil fuels. And that’s not even considering the havoc plastic wreaks on the world’s oceans, wildlife and on human health. Recent studies have found that adults are ingesting roughly a credit card’s worth (five grams) of plastic particles each week, with as yet unstudied impacts on our health. And 2,249 marine species are now known to ingest plastic with negative impacts on their health.
Customer service is a hallmark of the Amazon brand, and their mission statement includes giving customers the “best available selection.” According to a 2020 survey by Oceana, 87% of Amazon’s customers in the U.S. and Canada want plastic-free packaging options. Amazon’s “Shipment Zero” program can ship items in their own packaging or in carbon-zero packaging. It’s unclear why this option isn’t available in the US or globally; the only place it seems to be available is in India, where the company has rolled out a fully-recyclable, all-paper mailer.
As a trillion-dollar, multi-national company that employs 1.2 million people and invested 1.5 billion dollars in a single quarter in order to deliver almost any package to almost any doorstep overnight, Amazon could easily eliminate plastic packaging with a single top-down decision if incoming CEO Andy Jassy chooses to.
In fact, Amazon India has already done this; after pressure from the government and communities, Amazon India eliminated single use plastic packaging. There, the company has rolled out all-paper mailers (that are truly recyclable and compostable) to replace the plastic ones and 40% of goods are shipped in their own packaging, without secondary e-commerce packaging. Sixty percent of Amazon Pantry orders in India are fulfilled in reusable tote bags and some shipments are delivered in reusable crates instead of boxes.
If Amazon is serious about its commitment to sustainability, it should monitor its plastic footprint as obsessively as it monitors labor organizing within its company.
We call on Amazon to:
Publicly report the gross volume and weight of plastic packaging it uses each year in its sustainability reports starting in 2021.
Revise the way it calculates its carbon footprint to include the true climate impacts of plastic in its sustainability reports starting in 2021.
Commit to shifting fully to plastic-free packaging worldwide by no later than 2025 with annual plastic packaging reduction targets of 25%.
Create strict plastic-free packaging requirements for all vendors in its marketplace worldwide by 2022.
TAKE ACTION
Use your power as a consumer to force Amazon to change! Fill out the fields below to join Beyond Plastics and other members of the Break Free From Plastic coalition to tell Amazon to STOP polluting our planet with single-use plastic packaging.