Online shoppers may notice a change in the look of their packages in the coming months, as major e-tailers phase out their use of plastic mailers and other plastics in a bid to cut ocean plastic pollution. For instance, Walmart recently committed to phasing out use of plastic e-commerce mailers in the U.S., and both Walmart and Target have pledged to significantly reduce their use of virgin plastic by 2025.
Now comes word that the largest e-commerce player of them all intends to follow suit. In its latest annual sustainability report, Amazon reported a significant drop in its plastic use last year and said it will phase out plastic mailers, according to As You Sow, a Berkeley, California-based shareholder advocacy group. The group, which says it has been pushing Amazon to set plastic reduction targets for the past three years, said it was particularly gratified to see in the report that Amazon had reduced its use of single-use plastic to ship customer orders by 11.6% in 2022 compared to 2021 levels.
As You Sow says it has filed multiple shareholder proposals with the company since 2021 asking it to reduce plastic packaging use in alignment with targets laid out in Breaking the Plastic Wave, a landmark study by Pew Charitable Trusts. That study concluded that plastic demand should be reduced by at least one-third to cut ocean plastic pollution 80% by 2040.
“Cutting plastic use by 11% and phasing out plastic mailers represent significant achievements by Amazon toward meeting reduction goals set out in the Pew report that will lead to less plastic waste,” Conrad MacKerron, senior vice president of As You Sow, said in a release. “We are pleased the company has heard the strong voice of shareholders on this issue and responded. We hope the company will commit to a defined set of future reduction goals as well.”Copyright ©2024. All Rights ReservedDesign, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing