Amazon Flex driver Arielle McCain, 24, delivers a package on December 18, 2018, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Environmental campaigners and waste experts say Amazon’s new plastic bags, which cannot be recycled in curbside recycling bins, are having a negative impact.(Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe)
Over the past year, Amazon has cut back on the portion of goods packed in cardboard boxes in favor of lightweight plastic mail, which has allowed the retail giant to squeeze more packages into delivery trucks and planes.
But environmental campaigners and waste experts say new types of plastic bags that cannot be recycled in curbside recycling bins are having a negative impact.
“Amazon’s packaging has the same problems as plastic bags, which cannot be sorted in our recycling system and get stuck in machines,” said Lisa Se, program manager at the King County Solid Waste Division, which oversees recycling in King County, Washington Lisa Sepanski said.., where Amazon is headquartered.”It takes labor to cut them out. They have to stop the machine.”
The recent holiday season has been the busiest for e-commerce, which means more shipments — resulting in a lot of packaging waste.As the platform behind half of all e-commerce transactions in 2018, Amazon is by far the largest waste hauler and producer, and a trendsetter, according to eMarketer, meaning its move to plastic mail could signal a shift for the industry as a whole .Other retailers using similar plastic mail include Target, which declined to comment.
The problem with plastic mail is twofold: they need to be recycled individually, and if they end up in the usual stream, they can disrupt the recycling system and prevent larger bundles of material from being recycled.Environmental advocates say Amazon, an industry giant, needs to do a better job of encouraging consumers to recycle plastic mail, by offering more education and alternative places to do so.
“We’ve been working hard to improve our packaging and recycling options and have reduced global packaging waste by more than 20 percent in 2018,” said Amazon spokeswoman Melanie Janin, adding that Amazon provides recycling information on its website.(Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Some waste experts say Amazon’s goal of reducing bulky cardboard is the right move.Plastic mail has some benefits for the environment.Compared to boxes, they take up less space in containers and trucks, which increases shipping efficiency.The production, use and disposal of plastic film emits fewer greenhouse gases and consumes less oil than recycled cardboard, said David Allawi, senior policy analyst for the materials management program at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
Plastic is so cheap and durable that many companies use it for packaging.But consumers tend to put plastic bags in the recycling bin.Experts say the plastic mail evades the attention of sorting machines and into paper bales that are baled for recycling, contaminating the entire package, outweighing the positive impact of reducing bulk cardboard shipments.Paper packs used to fetch high prices in the international market and have long been profitable in the recycling industry.But bales are so hard to sell—many are sent for recycling because of stricter laws in China—that many West Coast recycling companies have to throw them away.(Packaging is just one source of plastic pollution from paper bags to be recycled.)
“As packaging becomes more complex and lighter, we have to process more material at a slower rate to produce the same yield. Is the profit enough? The answer today is no,” said Pete Keller, vice president of recycling at Republic Services. , the company is one of the largest waste movers in the United States.”Dealing with it on a daily basis is labor and maintenance intensive, and quite frankly expensive.”
Over the past 10 years, Amazon has cut down on unnecessary packaging, packing products in their original boxes whenever possible, or in the lightest packaging possible.Amazon’s Janin said the company switched to lightweight plastic mailers over the past year as part of a larger effort to reduce packaging waste and operating costs.Janin writes that Amazon is “currently expanding the capacity of fully recyclable buffer mail that can be recycled in the paper recycling stream.”
One of the few Fortune 500 companies that doesn’t file a corporate social responsibility or sustainability report, the Seattle-based company says its “frustration-free” packaging program has reduced packaging waste by 16 percent and eliminated the need for Demand for more than 305 million shipping boxes.2017.
“In my opinion, their move to flexible packaging is driven by cost and performance, but also a low carbon footprint,” said Nina Goodrich, director of the Sustainable Packaging Alliance.She oversees a How2Recycle logo, which began appearing on Amazon’s padded plastic mail in December 2017, as a step toward consumer education.
Another problem with the new plastic-filled mail is that Amazon and other retailers put paper address labels, making them unsuitable for recycling, even at store drop-off locations.Labels need to be removed to separate paper from plastic so the material can be recycled.
“Companies can take good materials and make them non-recyclable based on labels, adhesives or inks,” Goodrich said.
Currently, these plastic-filled Amazon mail can be recycled once consumers remove the label and take the mail to a drop-off location outside some chains.After cleaning, drying and polymerizing, the plastic can be melted and made into composite wood for decking.Cities that ban plastic bags, like Amazon’s hometown of Seattle, have fewer drop-off locations.
According to a 2017 Closed-Loop Report on Recycling in the U.S., only 4 percent of the plastic film accumulated in U.S. households is recycled through collection programs in grocery stores and big box stores.Another 96% turns into trash, even if it is thrown into curbside recycling, it ends up in a landfill.
Some countries require companies to take greater financial and management responsibility for their products after consumers use them.In these systems, companies are paid based on the amount of waste their products and packaging cause.
To comply with its legal obligations, Amazon pays these fees in some countries outside the United States.Amazon is already subject to such systems in Canada, according to the nonprofit Canadian Managed Services Alliance, which supports programs in the provinces.
In the vast patchwork of U.S. recycling laws, such requirements have yet to find favor with the federal government, except for specific, toxic and valuable materials such as electronics and batteries.
The physical lockers that Amazon reserves for consumers to return products can accept used packaging, experts suggested, adding that Amazon could commit to recycling the plastic for future use in its shipping mail.
“They can do reverse distribution, bringing the material back into their distribution system. These collection points are becoming very important for consumer convenience,” said Scott Cassell, chief executive of the Institute for Product Management, which conducted the study. So is a company focused on reducing the environmental impact of consumer products.”But it will cost them money.”
Post time: Apr-29-2022