Plastic packaging wastefulness from the online retail giant Amazon balloon to 709 million pounds globally in 2021 — equivalent to the weight of some 70,000 grampus whale — according to a newfangled study publish Thursday by the nonprofit Oceana . That ’s an 18 per centum gain over Oceana ’s estimate of Amazon ’s pliant packaging for 2020 , show a growing problem that environmental exponent — and even Amazon ’s own shareholders — say the company is doing too little to address .
Amazon ’s moldable promotional material “ is a problem for the world ’s waterway and oceans , and it ’s an outlet they postulate to be prioritise , ” said Dana Miller , Oceana ’s director of strategic opening move and an author of the theme . If all the company ’s charge plate from 2021 were convert into formative air pillows — the hyperbolic pouches infix in some Amazon packages to cut shifting during transit — and lay side by side , Miller pronounce it would circulate the globe more than 800 times .
As thelargest retailer on the planet , Amazon goes through a lot of plastic . It ships7.7 billionpackages around the earth each year , often using charge plate gentle wind pillow , bag , and protective sleeves to cushion intersection during transit . Environmental counsel say these are some of the worst kinds of credit card : They ca n’t be recycle , and their light weightiness makes them prostrate to ramble into the oceans , where theykill more large marine mammalsthan any other kind of sea debris . As the plastics break down , they not only strip harmful chemical substance but can also hold with new ones in the surroundings , posingtoxicity risksto the mussel , oyster , whales , and other animals that accidentally ingest them .
Photo: Bruce Bennett (Getty Images)
This plastic “ is not a friendly visitant to the oceans , ” Miller said . Her organization calculate that 26 million pounds of Amazon ’s shaping waste from 2021 will eventually end up in the cosmos ’s sea , rivers , and other aquatic ecosystem .
Plastics also cause harm during the production phase angle , give off nursery gas and posing environmental jurist headache . Petrochemical facilities that make plastics tend to be sited near disproportionately low - income communities and biotic community of color , exposing them to hazardous chemical that are linked tocancer , respiratory disease , andneurological trouble .
Historically , the tricksy part about holding Amazon accountable for moldable defilement has been its secrecy around the issue . The caller has repeatedly slump to disclose its moldable packaging consumption , even after investor owning nearly50 pct of Amazon ’s sharesvoted in favor of a shareholder resolution demanding it . Conrad MacKerron , elderly frailty president of the shareholder protagonism group that filed the answer , As You Sow , said Amazon has ignored his organization since the vote last May . “ It ’s really appalling behaviour from a company like this , ” he recite Grist .
It was n’t until this workweek , two day before Oceana ’s report descend out , that Amazon offered its own estimation for its formative publicity footprint . In ablog post , the company said it used about 214 million pounds of single - consumption plastic publicity to ship orders to customer in 2021 — less than one - third the amount Oceana cipher .
Matt Littlejohn , Oceana ’s elderly vice president for strategical initiatives , sound out this is because Amazon ’s estimate only accounts for plastic packaging used for orderliness sent through Amazon - owned and operated fulfilment centre — which answer for for an undisclosed fraction of Amazon ’s total sales . ( Amazon say Grist its figures present “ the legal age of plastics used ” to ship orders to its customer , and that it offer third - party sellers “ incentives ” to reduce promotion . ) Oceana ’s estimate , by line , considers all sales facilitated by Amazon , admit those live up to through third - party sellers .
Amazon ’s reported name “ is not directly comparable to Oceana ’s estimate , ” Littlejohn said in a instruction . To make its calculation , Oceana used publicly available data on the amount of shaping packaging waste from einsteinium - mercantilism in countries representing Amazon ’s top nine market and Amazon ’s food market share in those countries . Assuming that Amazon ’s food market share is correlate with its use of plastic packaging , Oceana multiplied the two routine together , concluding that the retail merchant used about 709 million Syrian pound of moldable packaging in 2021 .
“ Until Amazon is fully vapourous on its company - wide usance of fictile publicity , ” Littlejohn proceed in his statement , Oceana ’s deliberation “ is the best uncommitted estimate of the companionship ’s full plastic footmark . ”
MacKerron , with As You Sow , echoed Oceana ’s vexation and note that Amazon ’s web log post still does not address requests for the company to set quantitative plastic - simplification targets . Instead , it speaks in extensive term and highlight two initiatives where Amazon is replacing single - use plastics with newspaper alternatives , one of which was first announcedthree years ago .
Other result proffered by Amazon — likeeducating consumer about waste managementand funding more plastic collection infrastructure — lean on plastic recycling , which expert say will never scale up to become a viable solution to the fictile contamination crisis . Virtually no U.S. curbside recycling programsaccept the kind of plastic that goes into Amazon ’s plastic packaging , meaning most of it must be deck into landfill or incinerated . Amazon tries to get around this by promote client to stick packaging at “ fund drop - off ” collection points for pliant motion picture , which is ostensibly then pick up and reprocess , but experts believe these programs are a “ charade . ” Not even 6 percent of Amazon users say they habituate them , and Oceana ’s own investigation into 186 of the U.S. and U.K. drop - off localization that Amazon promotes on its web site revealed that at least 41 percent do n’t really accept Amazon ’s pliant promotional material .
Environmental pleader say Amazon is able of much more to reduce plastic waste , as evidenced by step the company has already taken in other countries . In response to a plastic voiding policy in India , Amazon suppose it replaced all of its single - utilization plastic there . For orders originating from the EU , where the European Commission has proposedplastic reduction requirementsfor Es - commerce , Amazon has said it no longer use single - consumption charge plate udder , pouches , or melody cushions .
In the U.S. , environmental advocates hope legislation enacted in California earlier this year could catalyse legal action from Amazon . The statewidePlastic Pollution Producer Responsibility Actwill require companies operating in California to jactitate the amount of plastic they produce and betray by at least 25 percentage between 2023 and 2032 . Because California represents about15 percentof the U.S. economy , Amazon is bear to follow the law nationwide rather than develop disjoined protocols for the Golden State .
Still , Oceana wants Amazon to displace these policies and abbreviate plastic voluntarily . “ It ’s the correct thing to do , ” Miller said . Her administration is call on Amazon to make a fellowship - wide commitment to reduce its worldwide plastic packaging one - third below 2022 spirit level by 2030 — in addition to releasing public reports on its total plastic function .
According to MacKerron , these asks are “ quite mild , ” give the hundred of other companionship — include potbelly that bring forth Brobdingnagian amounts of pliant waste , likeUnilever and Mondelez — that have long disclose their total plastic packaging use and have set target to reduce it . ( They may befailing to come across those targets , but their actions suggest Amazon could write a quantitative target if it wanted to . ) A new stockholder resolution filed by As You Sow on Tuesday says Amazon is “ falling behind its peers . ”
Oceana ’s last demand is for Amazon to describe for and come down the clime impact and plastic footprint of all the product it sells on its website . Aninvestigationpublished sooner this year bring out that Amazon ’s assurance to achieve net - zero climate pollution by 2040 counts spirit bike emission only for products with an Amazon brand label , which calculate for just 1 percent of the troupe ’s online sales . Miller aver it ’s imperative that Amazon compensate this error and not copy it in the plastic - reduction insurance policy that Oceana is ask for .
“ Amazon should take responsibility for the full climate impact of all products sold through its website and all packaging used to ship these sales , ” Oceana say in its composition .
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