Amazon Eliminated Plastic Packaging At One of Its Warehouses (theverge.com) 21
Umar Shakir reports via The Verge: Amazon is fulfilling a small part of its promise to switch from using plastic bubble mailers and air pillows to all recyclable paper packaging for its shipments. The company announced that it has outfitted one facility in Euclid, Ohio, with an upgraded packaging machine that can automatically fold custom-fit boxes to wrap some products, use paper mailers for small items, and slide in paper fillers instead of plastic ones in standard boxes.
As Amazon transitions over to curbside recyclable packaging, it will "reduce the company's plastic waste and the amount of plastic pollution that can reach the seas," says Matt Littlejohn, senior vice president of Oceana, a conservation organization. However, Littlejohn questions Amazon's commitment to end plastic use in the US, its largest market, compared to the commitments it made for the UK, Germany, and other markets. Amazon says it'll be a "multiyear effort" to move US warehouses to recyclable paper. "Unfortunately, Amazon, in this announcement, did not make a clear, quantifiable, and time-bound commitment, so it is unclear when, where, and how much real plastic reduction there will be," Littlejohn says.
As Amazon transitions over to curbside recyclable packaging, it will "reduce the company's plastic waste and the amount of plastic pollution that can reach the seas," says Matt Littlejohn, senior vice president of Oceana, a conservation organization. However, Littlejohn questions Amazon's commitment to end plastic use in the US, its largest market, compared to the commitments it made for the UK, Germany, and other markets. Amazon says it'll be a "multiyear effort" to move US warehouses to recyclable paper. "Unfortunately, Amazon, in this announcement, did not make a clear, quantifiable, and time-bound commitment, so it is unclear when, where, and how much real plastic reduction there will be," Littlejohn says.
Plastic clamshells next? (Score:3)
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I rarely get clamshells from Amazon these days. I think it is obvious why.
1. Clamshells are more expensive than cardboard.
2. They don't stack nicely in a warehouse, they're designed to be hung on hooks or carefully stacked on store shelves.
3. They don't ship as well as boxes do, generally(water resistance is a plus, but plastic wrap can do that too.)
4. Amazon generally has enough volume to justify custom packaging for them, so even if something at the store is in a clamshell, it might not be at Amazon's
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Please provide scientific proof that the alternatives to plastic are better for the environment.
Greenwashing (Score:5, Interesting)
These recyclable materials are generally made from sisal fibre. In order to keep up with the rapidly increasing demand for sisal, huge swaths of rainforest in Madagascar and other tropical locales are being razed to use as sisal plantations.
If anyone is really interested in conservation, the solution is to repair what you have and reduce consumption. The drive for "recyclable packaging" is no more than a green bandaid to stamp out any incipient guilt that Consumers are starting to feel.
Re:Greenwashing (Score:5, Informative)
Not really. The fibers from the Agave Sisalana plant are almost exclusively made into twines, ropes, and yarns, similar to Hemp, Jute, and Manila. I'm sure some rainforest area is being cut to make sisal plantations, but sisal plants are also being used to hold down sand dunes and grown in other areas like the Yucatan peninsula.
Most cardboard is made from wood chips left over from harvesting fast-growing softwood trees like spruce and pine. The two biggest paper producers, China and USA, use very little sisal for paper as other materials are closer, cheaper, and better suited.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://www.crs.org/stories/si... [crs.org]
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Sounds like you've had a lifetime's consumption already. Stop chewing on the window sills.
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The Great Amazon Heist! (Score:2)
Amazon has a packaging problem (Score:3)
It's obvious the packaging selection is being done algorithmically and needs an injection of human supervision. Probably much of this has to do with the dimensions of items as seen in the product listings which are often nonsensical (the dimensions account for the size of the item contained inside the manufacturer's packaging and not the size of the manufacture's package itself, or vice-versa, for example).
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If you are supporting the dead-tree book industry, you are part of the problem.
This anti plastic is BS! (Score:2)
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How do you know that recycling is better for the environment that simply landfilling? Show me the science.
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How do you know that recycling is better for the environment that simply landfilling? Show me the science.
Recycling without chemical process (ie: shredding or compacting) and then putting these recycled products into something 'solid' like say wall insulation, or filler for concrete or whatever to trap the plastics from breaking down into the environment is definitely the better way to go. Because just straight up dumping plastics into a landfill puts more plastic into the environment, animals, water table... etc etc.
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Plastic is not the problem, people are the problem in the way they don't recycle it reasonably. But it far easier to irrationally hate all plastic like social media tells you to without actually thinking for yourself.
The problem is many (most?) plastics are either difficult to recycle or take more energy to recycle than just printing new plastic. And also, washing the plastics so that you can process them for recycling puts microplastics (a real thing) into the water table.
And take into account curb-side recycling only really wants #1 and #2. They specifically don't want things like #5-7 and many of the others due to they are combo plastics and are even *more* difficult to recycle.
It's just 'bad all around' (tm)
I think
The paper mailers use foam (Score:2)
So a plant removed plastic shipping materials. Great. But if you tear apart one of their paper envelopes it has a foam layer between layers of paper. What is this foam made of? Will it turn into micro plastics all the same? Usually foam is made of plastic, like polystyrene, but could this be an organic material - and I don’t mean something made out of corn. It turns out that corn plastic is not so great, either.
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At least the Amazon padded envelopes I've received typically use what appear to be recycled paper fibers or other plant-based fibers as the padding wool. I've not seen any polystyrene padding in a long time.
And some people will complain about paper fillers (Score:2)
losing proposition (Score:2)
All I know is that more stuff I order is coming in minimal inadequate packaging, and I have to return it because it is damaged. Sometimes twice. Turns out saving the planet is not cheap.