Amazon has become an increasingly ubiquitous part of our lives, as more and more people receive weekly — and even daily — packages from the company. But as these packages pile up on doorsteps all over the world, a glaring issue has emerged: How do you recycle all those damn boxes, bubble envelopes, and Prime Now paper bags?
Given the huge variety in packaging, the answer isn't so clear.
#Amazon does provide guidelines around the topic and customers in the U.S. whose orders are fulfilled by Amazon can click on any order in the Amazon app and scroll down to the bottom to view recycling or discard instructions. People can also ask Alexa or Siri "How do I recycle my Amazon packaging?" and both will direct them to Amazon's guidelines.
But David Pinsky, a senior plastics campaigner at Greenpeace, doesn't think this information's very useful.
"While it is helpful to provide information, Amazon is continuing to place the burden on customers to manage its enormous packaging footprint. As U.S. and global recycling markets collapse, the truth is that very few plastics are still recyclable and, even if they are collected for recycling, most are not recycled. It's time for Amazon to ditch all single-use packaging and transition to reuse and refill systems," Pinsky, who works to make large companies reduce their single-plastic use, wrote in an email.
