Amazon India on Monday said that it has eliminated all single-use plastic in packaging originating from its over 50 fulfilment centers in India. This comes nine months after the company had pledged to become single-use plastic-free by June 2020 to build an environmentally sustainable supply chain. The company said that it has taken multiple steps for this including replacing plastic packaging material, such as bubble wraps and air pillows, with ‘paper cushion’ in its packaging followed by introducing 100 per cent plastic-free and biodegradable paper tape earlier this year that is used to seal and secure customer shipments.
Amazon India had also replaced thin cling films for customer deliveries among other material with packaging options that are not single-use plastic in nature. The company said that all other plastic packaging material coming out from its fulfilment centers is completely recyclable through available collection, segregation and recycling channels.
The company had conducted multiple pilots while developing the single-use plastic-free solution to look at the in-transit strength of its packaging. It had also partnered with manufacturers to design sustainable packaging solutions to minimize waste in packaging. “The pilots have enabled the company to make significant steps towards it sustainability goals without impacting the customer experience or product safety,” Amazon said.
“The elimination of single-use plastic in our packaging across our fulfilment centers marks an important milestone in our relentless journey towards building a sustainable supply chain,” said Prakash Kumar Dutta, Director, Customer Fulfilment & Supply Chain, Amazon India. The company will “continue to invest and innovate on this front,” Dutta added.
Amazon had earlier this month announced expanding its packaging-free shipping to more than 100 cities. Currently over 40 per cent of Amazon customer orders shipped from Amazon India’s fulfilment centers are either packaging-free or have significantly reduced packaging. Amazon has also been collecting and recycling plastic waste equal to its usage across India from September 2019 onwards. It has identified collection agencies to help collect this plastic waste generated from usage across Amazon fulfilment network.
