Amazon revamps packaging for select devices
Amazon has an all-new, more sustainable packaging design for shipping its Echo, Kindle and Fire TV products.
The e-tail giant’s new device packaging introduces, on average, 30% more recycled fiber content, reducing reliance on virgin tree-based and bleached fibers in favor of fiber content that has already been recycled by customers and is in circulation.
The new device packaging also uses 60% less ink, and the design looks more like the “brown kraft box” design that Amazon already uses because it doesn’t bleach its boxes. In addition to removing bleaching chemicals from the supply chain, the brown kraft design also enables Amazon to double the amount of post-consumer recycled materials it uses.
In addition, Amazon is building on its use of QR codes to reduce the amount of paper in its boxes by using a new tactile-marked QR code on the quick start guides in its boxes. These allow customers who are blind or have low vision to more easily find the code by touch and scan it to access a digital quick-start guide which details product info, setup instructions and troubleshooting tips.
A customer can also learn more about the device’s accessibility features. The new QR codes will start to appear in select Amazon device packages with rollout to more packaging over time.
The latest Amazon Kindle, Echo Show, and Fire TV devices are packaged in this new design. Amazon plans to use the new device packaging for future Echo, Kindle and Fire TV products around the world.
Amazon eliminates waste in deliveries
Since 2015, Amazon says it has reduced the average per-shipment packaging weight by 43% and avoided more than 3 million metric tons of packaging, including nearly half a million metric tons in 2023.
During 2024, the e-tailer removed plastic air pillows used in delivery packaging at its global fulfillment centers, which Amazon says avoids the use of nearly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually.
Other efforts include the "Ships in Product Packaging" (SIPP) program made available to all third-party sellers across the U.S. and Canada using the Fulfillment by Amazon hosted logistics service .
This program is designed to reduce unnecessary packaging waste by testing packages for their ability to ship in the original manufacturer’s packaging without additional Amazon packaging.
In addition, the Package Decision Engine, an AI model that Amazon designed and built, is able to determine the most efficient type of packaging for each item it learns about.
[READ MORE: Amazon deploys AI to achieve sustainability goals]
The company also uses machine learning (ML) approaches and a combination of natural language processing and computer vision to determine how to use the right amount of packaging for the hundreds of millions of products it ships.
And Amazon uses sustainable insulated packaging, made from recycled paper and curbside-recyclable, for delivery of select grocery products. Amazon is also working toward making all of its shipments net-zero carbon through Shipment Zero, with a goal of delivering 50% of all shipments with net-zero carbon by 2030.
Other initiatives to reduce packaging waste include curbside recyclable packaging made from recycled paper. Deliveries of chilled and frozen food products from the company’s Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market brick-and-mortar grocery chains now arrive insulated in packaging designed to be convenient for customers to recycle at home.
