Amazon acknowledges plastic packaging is “not yet recyclable”

Oceana | Used by permission

You may have noticed updated packaging wrapped around your recent Amazon orders. 

While Amazon’s classic blue and white bubble-lined plastic bags have traditionally been labeled with a recycling symbol and instructions for recycling at a store drop-off location, the latest similar packaging now comes with a slash through the recycling symbol.

Staff | TPIN
Left: Amazon packaging from February 2024, Right: Amazon packaging from September 2024.

When you visit the website How2Recycle.info, as instructed by the label, the website explains the slash through the recycling symbol indicates the product is “not yet recyclable.”

While a subtle change that I’m sure many consumers didn’t notice, this indicates an important shift in Amazon’s marketing of their packaging materials. It appears the company is finally acknowledging that their plastic film packaging is not recyclable. 

This is what we’ve been calling on Amazon to do since we learned through our Truth in Recycling investigation that very little of their packaging actually gets recycled. PIRG staff and volunteers put tracking devices in 93 bundles of Amazon plastic packaging and put them in store drop-off locations designated by Amazon’s partner How2Recycle for recycling plastic film. Only four of the 93 went to a center that sorts plastic for recycling. The trackers indicated that most packaging ended up in landfills and incinerators, or were made into nonrecyclable products. 

This came as no surprise to us, as we know plastic is incredibly hard to recycle. Less than 10% of all plastic has been recycled, and only 1% has been recycled twice. The rest ends up overflowing landfills, littering our streets, polluting the ocean, and harming wildlife.

We hoped that our investigation made it clear to Amazon that plastic recycling is a failure and that the recycling label on their packaging was misleading to the public.  And with their latest label, it appears that message is finally taking hold.  

However, truthful labeling is just one step. What we really need is for companies like Amazon to move away from plastic packaging altogether. Thankfully, Amazon is taking steps here too. Most recently, the company announced in October that they have successfully eliminated plastic air pillows in their global fulfillment centers. 

It’s great to see Amazon responding to customer demands to use less plastic and we urge them to continue looking for innovative ways to eliminate plastic packaging altogether.  

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Authors

Jenn Engstrom

State Director, CALPIRG

Jenn directs CALPIRG’s advocacy efforts, and is a leading voice in Sacramento and across the state on protecting public health, consumer protections and defending our democracy. Jenn has served on the CALPIRG board for the past two years before stepping into her current role. Most recently, as the deputy national director for the Student PIRGs, she helped run our national effort to mobilize hundreds of thousands of students to vote. She led CALPIRG’s organizing team for years and managed our citizen outreach offices across the state, running campaigns to ban single-use plastic bags, stop the overuse of antibiotics, and go 100% renewable energy. Jenn lives in Los Angeles, where she enjoys spending time at the beach and visiting the many amazing restaurants in her city.

Celeste Meiffren-Swango

State Director, Environment Oregon

As director of Environment Oregon, Celeste develops and runs campaigns to win real results for Oregon's environment. She has worked on issues ranging from preventing plastic pollution, stopping global warming, defending clean water, and protecting our beautiful places. Celeste's organizing has helped to reduce kids' exposure to lead in drinking water at childcare facilities in Oregon, encourage transportation electrification, ban single-use plastic grocery bags, defend our bedrock environmental laws and more. She is also the author of the children's book, Myrtle the Turtle, empowering kids to prevent plastic pollution. Celeste lives in Portland, Ore., with her husband and two daughters, where they frequently enjoy the bounty of Oregon's natural beauty.