A major online retailer will remove single-use plastic from its deliveries this Christmas despite the federal government’s failure to pass national packaging reforms.
Amazon Australia revealed it would stop packaging products in plastic or using plastic packing material on Thursday, and instead use padded paper and cardboard envelopes of its own design.
The tech giant, which created the recyclable packaging as part of its net-zero by 2040 commitment, also invested in three machines that use AI to individually package some items and avoid oversized boxes.
The move comes one day after waste groups and the Greens criticised the federal Labor government’s decision not to introduce an extended producer responsibility scheme that could force manufacturers to reduce plastic packaging.
Amazon Australia’s recyclable envelopes were developed over two years in partnership with Visy and Sealed Air, country manager Janet Menzies said, and would play a large role in reducing plastic in the retail environment.
“A plastic envelope contains about 10 to 60 grams of plastic so if you think about that removal it’s a pretty significant change,” she said.
“This is our largest plastic packaging reduction effort to date and it’s going to avoid tonnes of plastic.”
The paper and cardboard packages used to replace plastic and bubble wrap use a “criss-cross weave” of paper to provide protection for products, Ms Menzies told AAP, and underwent significant testing.
Researchers within the company repeatedly drop-tested the packages with items inside to ensure their effectiveness, as well as having delicate items shipped to staff members using a variety of third-party carriers.
The company tested five types of recyclable packaging, she said, before selecting the current model.
“It’s one thing to think they’re going to work and it’s another to actually put them out in the wild and see how they perform,” Ms Menzies said.
“We hope that other businesses might, in the future, adopt some of this packaging because we’ve done the hard work of testing it all and knowing it can work for the vast majority of customer orders.”
The company will also use three automated packaging machines that use AI software to identify the size of an item and cut and heat-seal a cardboard envelope around it.
Australians shoppers were increasingly demanding recyclable materials in products and the packages that contain them, Australian Packaging Covenant chief executive Chris Foley said, and would welcome the changes.
Removing single-use plastic from envelopes and boxes would also make a large impact on the amount of material consumers discard.
“Australians generate 1.2 million tonnes of plastic packaging each year, with single-use plastics posing a significant challenge,” Mr Foley said.
Moves to introduce an extended producer responsibility scheme scheme, delayed at a meeting of state and federal environmental ministers, could make Australia’s waste reduction targets legally binding and demand the use of domestic recycled packaging material.
