Plastic pollution from Amazon deliveries grows by 29%, Oceana Says

According to a report by ocean conservation group Oceana, Amazon‘s plastic wrapping polluted the world’s streams and oceans by up to 23.5 million pounds in 2020.

The group has urged the e-commerce platform to cut its use of plastic packaging globally, something it has previously pledged to do in Germany and India.

According to Oceana’s analysis, Amazon will generate 599 million pounds of plastic packaging trash in 2020 alone, because of an increase in the company’s delivery during the epidemic. This represents a 29 percent increase over the organization’s 2019 projections.

It has urged the corporation to give data on its plastic footprint, something it has yet to do after disputing Oceana’s prior estimations.

The organization conducted a survey of Amazon Prime users in the UK and the US and discovered that 35.5 percent of respondents stated they threw away their packaging waste, owing to Amazon’s ‘plastic film’ not being accepted in most curbside recycling programs. Amazon should limit its usage of plastic packaging, according to 91 percent of respondents.

This initiative will be applied in Amazon’s Indian and German marketplaces, with single-use plastic already being phased out in India. Oceana, on the other hand, expects the corporation to be more open about its global efforts, claiming that plastic packaging is still reaching Indian customers.

It also wants Amazon to “listen to its shareholders,” one-third of whom have already urged that the business report on its plastic footprint. It also mentioned an ongoing petition, which has received 740,000 signatures so far, asking Amazon to provide plastic-free options.