Five Ways Amazon Australia Is Working Towards Sustainable Packaging

As part of Amazon’s commitment to building a more sustainable business for our customers, employees and the planet, we’re continuously working to reinvent and simplify our packaging options to reduce our environmental impact.

While we’ve taken steps towards more sustainable operations by introducing new packaging innovations, we’re still constantly finding ways to use better materials, and less of them. When it’s not possible to completely eliminate packaging waste for certain items, we look at ways of reducing it or ensuring its recyclability. These initiatives are all part of our goal to deliver what’s best for the planet and our customers.

 Here are five ways we are working towards more sustainable packaging:

1.Our boxes are 100% recyclable and can be put in you kerbside recycling bin

2. The water-activated tape we use to seal our boxes is made out of paper and is recyclable, which means it can go straight in the recycling bin with your box!

3. We’ve replaced our plastic air pillows with recyclable paper dunnage
(aka scrunched-up brown paper!) to protect goods during shipping. It’s a simple switch but it’s significantly reduced our plastic usage.

4. We ship products in their original packaging (when the packaging is strong enough and the vendor is happy for us to do so), eliminating the need for an additional shipping box. We are working with our vendors to increase the amount of e-commerce ready product we can send this way in Australia.

5. We’re reducing packaging weights across the board. In 2021 we introduced a new range of box sizes based to better suit orders from Australian customers. This has helped to ensure boxes are the right size to protect customer orders without wasting space or using extra material. Smaller and lighter packages mean Amazon can use delivery vehicle space more efficiently, resulting in fewer trips and less fuel burned – all of which helps to reduce our carbon footprint.

We’re working hard on a number of other initiatives to improve the recyclability of our packaging and eliminate plastic from our inbound and outbound operations – stay tuned for more updates from us.