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Amazon India Scraps Single-Use Plastic In Packaging Across Centers
In October 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called on citizens to help end the usage of single-use plastic – seen as a pollutant – by 2022
Highlights
- Amazon has swapped out packaging tapes with other bio-degradable options
- COVID-19 pandemic had slowed down work, says Amazon India official
- Flipkart has also cut down plastic used in packaging to 50 per cent
Bengaluru: The Indian unit of Amazon.com Inc has eliminated all single-use plastic in its packaging across fulfillment centers in the country, in line with its target to weed out the packaging material by June, the e-commerce giant said on Monday (June 29). The company said in addition to replacing packaging materials such as bubble wraps and air pillows with “paper cushions”, it had also swapped out packaging tapes with other bio-degradable options.
Akhil Saxena, vice-president of customer fulfillment for the APAC, LATAM and Middle East and North Africa regions, said in an interview,
We have successfully eliminated single-use plastic in all our fulfillment centers a 100 per cent.
Amazon, often criticised for using too much plastic and thermocol to wrap its billions of packages of shipments, had said last September that its India unit would replace single-use plastic in its packaging by June 2020.
Mr. Saxena said on Monday the COVID-19 pandemic had slowed down some of their work, but Amazon India managed to meet its target as the unit had started on the elimination project even before the national lockdown was imposed.
Last October, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called on citizens to help end the usage of single-use plastic – seen as a pollutant – by 2022.
Also Read: Will Coronavirus Lockdown Delay India’s Commitment To Phase Out Single-use Plastic By 2022?
The Asian country of 1.3 billion does not have an organized system for management of plastic waste, leading to extensive littering.
Many Indian cities rank among the world’s most polluted, and waste generated from single-use plastic has been a growing problem.
Walmart Inc’s India e-commerce unit Flipkart, a local rival to Amazon, said last month that it had cut down the usage of plastic packaging in its own supply chain to about 50%.
Also Read: Drowning In Plastic: Visualising The World’s Addiction To Plastic Bottles