Environmental group says Amazon's use of plastic skyrocketed last year
By Brad Dress - 12/15/21 12:45 PM EST
Up to 23.5 million pounds of plastic from retail giant Amazon entered waterways across the globe last year, according to a report published Wednesday from environmental group Oceana.
Amazon, the world's largest retailer, produced a total of 599 million pounds of plastic waste in 2020, a 29 percent increase from 2019, following a surge in e-commerce shopping during the pandemic. Only a small portion of the plastic waste entered the world's oceans and waters, but that was an increase from 22.4 million pounds in 2019.
The e-commerce industry as a whole produced 2.9 billion pounds of plastic in 2020, Oceana reported, with China and the U.S. leading with the highest amount of waste generated globally.
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Only 9 percent of plastic is ever recycled, with the rest going to incinerators, landfills or the oceans — where marine life is often killed when sea critters consume it or become entangled in the garbage.
Amazon was criticized by Oceana for what it determined to be a leading role as a plastic polluter.
"Our report found that Amazon's plastic packaging pollution problem is growing at a frightening rate at a time when the oceans need corporate leaders like Amazon to step up and meaningfully commit to reducing their use of single-use plastic," said Matt Littlejohn, the senior vice president for strategic initiatives at Oceana, in a press release.
Billions of pounds of plastic pollution enter the world's oceans every year, and plastic production is expected to quadruple by 2050. While most plastic is not recycled, Amazon uses a type of plastic in the category of plastic film, which is difficult to recycle.
On Amazon's Second Chance webpage, the company advertises how customers can recycle its products and give them a second life. But Oceana sent "secret shoppers" to 186 stores that claim they recycle Amazon packaging products.
The shoppers found 41 percent of stores did not accept Amazon plastic for recycling and 80 percent of managers said they were not familiar with the recycling program.
Oceana also interviewed 1,400 Amazon shoppers, and roughly 74 percent of them put Amazon plastic into municipal recycling bins, meaning the waste likely ended up in landfills or the environment.
Amazon has reduced plastic waste in India after the government announced it would ban single-use plastic. The retailer swapped out bubble wraps and air pillows for paper cushions and announced all other packaging material was 100 percent recyclable.
The company is doing the same in Germany, where it produced 88 million pounds of plastic waste in 2020.
Through its "frustration-free packaging" program, which Amazon rolled out in 2008, the company says it has reduced 1 million tons of packaging material since 2015, increased recycled content of plastic film products to 50 percent in 2021, and converted more than 40 percent of packaging material to recyclable plastic padded bags.
"Together, these improvements are expected to eliminate more than 25,000 metric tons of new plastic each year," the company says on its website.
But customers surveyed by Oceana say they want Amazon to do more to reduce plastic waste. And more than 740,000 people have signed onto a petition on change.org to get Amazon to offer plastic-free packaging options.
Oceana echoed those calls for more major reform.
"The company is now defining how products are packaged. It must stop hiding behind false and ineffective solutions, like plastic film recycling, and instead, do what it is doing in India and in Germany all around the planet," said Littlejohn. "We’re calling on Amazon to offer a plastic-free option at checkout — not just because their customers want it, but because our oceans need it."
The Hill has reached out to Oceana and Amazon.
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