CLAY — Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) fulfillment center in the town of Clay in June had a ceremonial decommissioning of its plastic air-pillow equipment to “officially offline the material locally,” Marc Heintzman, of Amazon field communications in New York, tells CNYBJ. It was part of the company’s overall effort to replace 95 percent of the plastic […]
CLAY — Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) fulfillment center in the town of Clay in June had a ceremonial decommissioning of its plastic air-pillow equipment to “officially offline the material locally,” Marc Heintzman, of Amazon field communications in New York, tells CNYBJ. It was part of the company’s overall effort to replace 95 percent of the plastic air pillows from delivery packaging in North America with paper filler. Amazon is working toward full removal by the end of the year, per its June 20 announcement. “We’re constantly inventing and thinking big to make our packaging small. We want to ensure that customers receive their items undamaged, while using as little packaging as possible to avoid waste, and prioritizing recyclable materials,” Amazon said. The removal of 95 percent of its plastic air pillows is “another step in our path to avoid and reduce packaging” — and part of its multi-year effort to remove plastic-delivery packaging from North America fulfillment centers. To date, this will be Amazon’s largest plastic-packaging reduction effort in North America and will avoid nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually. For Prime Day this year, “nearly all” of its customer deliveries will not contain plastic air pillows. Last October, Amazon announced its first U.S. automated-fulfillment center in Ohio to eliminate plastic-delivery packaging, including the transition from plastic air pillows to paper filler. The work in Ohio allowed the e-commerce giant to test and learn and move quickly on transitioning to paper filler for 95 percent of its shipments in less than a year. To achieve this, Amazon’s personnel collaborated with suppliers to source paper filler made from 100 percent recycled content, while also coordinating the transition across hundreds of its fulfillment centers. The effort included working with thousands of employees to change its machinery as well as to host employee trainings for these new systems and machines, Amazon said. Through its testing of paper filler — which the firm says included an assessment by a third-party engineer lab — Amazon discovered that it offers “the same, if not better,” protection to products than plastic air pillows. The paper filler is also curbside recyclable, making it easier for its customers to recycle at home, and made from 100 percent recycled content, it added.