Amazon India successful in eliminating single-use plastic

Amazon.in has announced of having accomplished its first milestone towards elimination of single-use plastic from its Fulfillment Centres (FC) in India. In September 2019, the company had announced their commitment to eliminate single-use plastic from its fulfilment network by June 2020 and introduced paper cushions into its packaging. In a span of four months, the company has successfully eliminated all the plastic dunnage and replaced it with paper cushion in its FCs across the country.

Paper cushion is an environment-friendly and a 100% recyclable packaging solution which is used to fill the void space inside packages to ensure that the product is well protected in transit. Since the introduction of paper cushion in its packaging in September 2019, the company has continued to aggressively expedite the implementation of plastic-free packaging alternatives. The successful transition to paper cushion across all its FCs is an integral milestone in the direction towards the elimination of single-use plastic from its fulfilment network by June 2020. 

Akhil Saxena, Vice President, Customer Fulfillment, Amazon India, says, “The complete elimination of plastic dunnage is a significant milestone for us in our journey towards removal of single-use plastic from our fulfillment centres by June 2020. We will continue to invest in innovative and sustainable packaging solutions to minimize our dependency on plastic while continuing to protect customer orders. Sustainability is integral for us because it ensures a triple win – it is good for our planet, good for our customers and community, and good for the business.”

In line with its commitment to sustainability in packaging, Amazon.in is aggressively developing plastic free alternatives for packaging mailers, bubble bags,stretch wrap and tape used in the packaging which will help the company eliminate all forms of plastic used in its packaging. Amazon India is also engaging with sellers to educate them and provide resources from its network to encourage the use of paper cushions and other plastic free alternatives.In June 2019, Amazon.in expanded Packaging-Free Shipments (PFS) to 14 cities in less than a year since the launch of the initiative. This was introduced to reduce waste generated from secondary packaging of customer orders. With the introduction of paper cushion and PFS, Amazon.in aims to minimize plastic generated throughout its supply chain and ensure secure deliveries of its customer orders.