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Less packaging waste at Amazon?

Amazon has been endeavouring for several years to avoid unnecessary packaging and to send orders in suitable boxes or shipping bags. However, when the planned EU packaging regulation comes into force, this alone will not be enough.

Amazon is the world's largest player in online retail and the volume of packaging is correspondingly high. Under pressure from customers, among others, the shipping giant has been endeavouring for several years to avoid unnecessary packaging and send orders in suitable boxes or shipping bags. However, when the planned EU packaging regulation comes into force, this alone will not be enough.

According to Amazon, it supports the EU Commission's goal of tackling excessive packaging and packaging waste in online retail. The company is already investing in „packaging designed for online retail“, where suppliers deliver their products in packaging that is already robust enough to withstand transport, and that do not require additional repackaging by Amazon. All that is needed further down the supply chain is a delivery label and the product can be without secondary packaging material are shipped. Since 2021, Amazon has increased the number of orders shipped to European customers without additional Amazon packaging by more than 50 per cent.

„Unless extra Amazon packaging is necessary, we want to do without it wherever possible,“ an Amazon spokesperson told packaging journal. „Our customers also want packaging that is the right size, easy to recycle and reduces waste. That's why we have reduced the packaging weight per shipment by an average of 41 per cent since 2015 and thus saved more than two million tonnes of packaging material. If packaging is required, we rely on lighter and customised packaging, but at the same time we have to ensure that the products arrive safely.“

When shipping from German logistics centres the company dispenses entirely with outer packaging made of disposable plastic - both for items from Amazon and for those from third-party providers that handle shipping via Amazon. In Europe, cardboard envelopes, shipping boxes, packing paper and paper bags are used instead, all of which are 100 per cent recyclable. Plastic bubble wrap has also been replaced with recyclable paper materials to protect the goods during shipping.

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The right packaging with machine learning

Finding the optimum packaging is a complex task given the range of hundreds of millions of items. Amazon therefore uses machine learning methods to determine the optimum packaging size. On the one hand, the company uses text-based data that from customer feedback originate. On the other hand, visual data is used, for example images of items taken directly in the logistics centres to determine product dimensions. This enables the combination of deep learning, natural language processing and computer vision, to find the right packaging size for each item.

Finally, Amazon has also scrutinised its transport division to assess its own plans for CO2-neutrality by 2040. More than 3,000 electric delivery vans and hundreds of cargo bikes, e-scooters and scooters have been in use since 2021 to deliver more than 100 million parcels to Amazon customers in Europe - 40 million in Germany alone.

However, it may be some time before your orders are delivered in reusable packaging. The e-commerce sector is explicitly addressed in the draft of the new EU packaging regulation and, according to the EU Commission's plans, should offer ten per cent of all transport packaging as reusable packaging from 2030 and at least 50 per cent from 2040. The question of how Amazon intends to respond to this and when the first reusable packaging could be used has so far remained unanswered.

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