Amazon wins green praise for brown-bag packaging

Image: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Amazon cut its single-use plastic packaging by 16% in 2024, bringing its total to just over 74,000 metric tons. A big part of that drop comes from swapping out plastic mailers for recyclable brown paper bags, something customers seem to love, since they can toss them in their curbside recycling bins at home. Plastic, by contrast, is a pain: it often needs special drop-off points and barely gets recycled anyway, only about 5% of all plastic in the U.S., and less than 2% for plastic film. Paper and cardboard, on the other hand, get recycled at much higher rates, around 67% and 74%.

The company is also rolling out clever new packaging tech. Machines now right-size boxes and wrap products efficiently in paper. And through its “Ships in Product Packaging” program, Amazon can skip outer packaging entirely when items are already in protective boxes. The result? Packages that are easier to open, arrive intact, and are much more recyclable. Environmental group Oceana gave the move a thumbs-up, noting that Amazon isn’t just doing this to look eco-friendly customer convenience and smart business decisions are what’s really driving the change.

They say it makes it more likely to last. Still, Amazon admits some plastic is unavoidable, especially for delicate items or certain foods, and the company says it’s actively looking for better ways to recycle what is left.

Source: Ross Kerber, "Amazon wins green praise for brown-bag packaging", Reuters, Aug. 13, 2025

Further Reading: [profit report] https://ir.aboutamazon.com/news-release/news-release-details/2025/Amazon-com-Announces-Fourth-Quarter-Results/default.aspx