What’s the deal with the Plastic Soup again?
March 15 2024 That’s what readers of news site nu.nl on their comment platform Nujij were wondering. In a recent […]
6 January 2021
COVID-19 resulted in an unprecedented increase in orders on the internet over the past year. Sales platforms often pack an already packaged product again, for example, in air cushion envelopes. As a result, the use of plastic in the e-commerce sector has increased significantly.
Anyone buying from Amazon, the largest e-commerce company globally, does not have the option of having ordered products delivered without plastic packaging. That option must be put in place quickly.
Amazon’s turnover grew by more than 30% due to the pandemic in 2020. In 2019, even before the corona epidemic, Amazon used 211 million kilos of packaging plastic for shipments to 130 countries. The American NGO Oceana estimates that more than 10 million kilos of this ended up in the environment.
If that 211 million kilos of plastic consisted of one long string of air-cushion film, you could wrap the world with it 500 times. Oceana calculates this in its recently published report Amazon’s Plastic Problem Revealed. Amazon states in a reaction that the calculation is incorrect.
Amazon, which also opened a webshop in the Netherlands in March 2020, is replacing traditional packaging materials such as paper and cardboard with lightweight plastic to achieve climate targets. Since 2015, this has already saved 33% of packaging weight. Plastic is also suitable to protect products from damage.
A striking detail is that Amazon does not write anything about the disadvantages of plastic in its international sustainability report.
Nor does the company give a definitive answer about the total amount of plastic used, Amazon’s plastic footprint. It does say, however, that Amazon promotes the recycling of plastic packaging. The widely used plastic (air cushion) film has hardly any recycling value and is, in reality, dumped, incinerated, or left behind.
Oceana asked Amazon customers in the US, Canada, and the UK for their opinion:
Oceana calls on the fast-growing e-commerce sector to embrace a strict plastics policy that includes at least the following action points:
There are a few small players in the Netherlands who are already putting these action points into practice. They even go one step further: the plastic-free delivery of plastic-free products.
These companies show what is possible. However, it is the big players who have to make a difference. Companies like Amazon, Alibaba, or Bol.com control the chain from producer to customer. This position makes it possible to realize the transition to plastic-free delivery quickly.
On the petition site, Change.org, more than 700,000 people have already called on Amazon to give customers a choice of products without plastic packaging. In India, Amazon shows that this is possible.
We say: do it!
March 15 2024 That’s what readers of news site nu.nl on their comment platform Nujij were wondering. In a recent […]
The first Impact Fair is Europe’s largest Impact Experience. An interactive ‘immersive’ experience of impactful examples.
The waste-export to countries outside of the EU has been restricted The Netherlands is against a carpet ban on shipping of plastic waste.
The waste-export to countries outside of the EU has been restricted The Netherlands is against a carpet ban on shipping of plastic waste.