Amazon India has achieved a significant milestone in its efforts towards sustainability by eliminating all single-use plastic in packaging originating from its more than 50 fulfilment centres in India. In September 2019 the company had pledged to meet this goal in an accelerated time frame by June 2020, in an effort to build an environmentally sustainable supply chain. Earlier this month, the company announced that it has expanded its India-first initiative, Packaging-Free Shipping (PFS) to over 100 cities, and now more than 40% of Amazon customer orders shipped from Amazon India’s Fulfillment centres are now either packaging-free or have significantly reduced packaging. Aiming to achieve complete elimination of single-use plastic in its own fulfilment network, Amazon India has taken several steps. The first milestone towards this goal was achieved in December 2019 when the company replaced plastic packaging material, such as bubble wraps and air pillows, with ‘paper cushion’ in its packaging. The company then introduced 100% plastic-free and biodegradable paper tape earlier this year, which is used to seal and secure customer shipments. All other plastic packaging material originating from the Amazon Fulfillment Centers is 100% recyclable through available collection, segregation and recycling channels.
