Tell Amazon No More Plastic Packaging

From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):

Amazon is constantly shipping packages to doorsteps in blue and white bubble wrap envelopes stamped with the Prime logo and a recycling symbol. But 7,000 miles across the world, the plastic Amazon envelopes Americans thought they had recycled are littering a city in India.¹

Much of that plastic waste is then burned, filling the lungs of people half a world away. Companies like Amazon produce tons of plastic and tell us it can be recycled, when in reality it’s polluting our planet and making people sick in the process.²

Go to https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=53458 to tell Amazon: No more plastic packaging.

Despite the recycling symbol on the plastic bubble wrap packages, most U.S. recycling centers don’t accept that kind of plastic.³ The softer plastic films like envelopes and other wrappers are too flimsy and get caught in recycling machines.

And when plastic films can’t be recycled, the problem is outsourced to another country that has to deal with our mess.

India has banned the import of plastic waste from countries like the U.S., but that isn’t stopping plastic from ending up there. Every year, 500,000 tons of plastic waste are hidden in shipments of paper recycling.⁴

And in one city north of New Delhi, Amazon bubble mailers were easy to spot among the piles of plastic rubbish.

It’s no wonder that there was so much of Amazon’s plastic in the pile: The plastic packaging waste Amazon generated in 2021 could circle the Earth more than 800 times.⁵

Amazon should take responsibility for its plastic pollution. Add your name.

Plastic packaging is also polluting our oceans. Flexible plastic packaging is deadly for turtles, whales and dolphins that accidentally eat plastic film that ends up in the ocean.⁶

Amazon uses plastic pouches filled with air to cushion deliveries, which can look like a jellyfish to a hungry sea turtle. And when a turtle eats that bag, it dies a slow and painful death.

Amazon can find a way to deliver for its customers without creating so much wasteful plastic.

Plastic packaging is making people sick and killing marine life. Urge Amazon to take responsibility for its plastic waste.

1. K Oanh Ha, “Amazon Packages Burn in India, Final Stop in Broken Recycling System,” Bloomberg, December 27, 2022.
2. K Oanh Ha, “Amazon Packages Burn in India, Final Stop in Broken Recycling System,” Bloomberg, December 27, 2022.
3. Kristen Millares Young, “Why Amazon’s new streamlined packaging is jamming up recycling centers,” The Washington Post, February 11, 2019.
4. K Oanh Ha, “Amazon Packages Burn in India, Final Stop in Broken Recycling System,” Bloomberg, December 27, 2022.
5. Haleluya Hadero, “Group casts doubt on Amazon’s claims of reducing plastic,” Associated Press, December 15, 2022.
6. Graham Readfearn, “Deadliest plastics: bags and packaging biggest marine life killers, study finds,” The Guardian, December 13, 2020.