Greener Living

Amazon Is Ditching Plastic Air Pillow Packaging in North America

  • Product shipments will use recycled paper padding instead
  • Company also to replace plastic mailers with paper sleeves
Amazon boxes in New YorkPhotographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
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Amazon.com Inc., seeking to become more environmentally friendly, is replacing plastic air pillows in its North American shipments with recycled paper.

The e-commerce giant says it has already eliminated some 95% of the thin plastic cushions in its largest market and anticipates removing the rest by year-end. It’s among Amazon’s biggest moves to date to stop dispatching packages with single-use plastic that, while technically recyclable in specialty facilities, more often winds up in landfills or clogging machinery in recycling centers not designed for thin film.