Amazon shopper frustrated after learning packaging labels were misleading: 'How can Amazon get away with [this]?'

A Redditor took to the platform to complain about Amazon's allegedly recyclable packaging after they made attempts to recycle mailers. 

Posting in r/infuriatingasf***, the user shared that they had tried to find someplace to recycle the packaging but had come up empty. 

"Today after spending couple of hours I learnt that these recyclable labels are a lie," they said. "They can't be recycled anywhere with or without paper label stickers. Called dozens of places in and around Seattle area for plastic bag recycling and they don't accept Amazon blue mailers. How can Amazon get away with lying and placing the recycling burden on consumers?" 

The post highlights one of the biggest problems with most plastic packaging around the world: Even if it is technically recyclable, the vast majority of recycling facilities don't recycle plastic. 

According to a 2022 article in Smithsonian Magazine, 85% of plastic waste in the United States doesn't go to recycling centers, and just 5-6% is actually recycled. Much of this is because the country lacks sufficient plastic recycling facilities — and because much of the plastic packaging created simply isn't recyclable to begin with. 

Recycling plastic requires specific facilities, and the vast majority of the processes tend to be energy- and water-intensive, which disincentivizes companies from doing it.

The lack of plastic recycling options exacerbates the bigger plastic pollution problem, as the materials don't biodegrade over time but rather break down into tiny particles known as microplastics, which can have serious health and environmental effects. 

There is hope that things will improve. Researchers in Japan, for example, developed a technique for recycling plastic that is less intensive and could lead to widespread adoption.

Commenters sympathized with the user. 

"I know something like 70-90% of the plastic we recycle just ends up in a landfill anyway unfortunately," one said. "There are some technologies out there that are emerging that can turn it into hydrogen and graphene. They are testing it out at Rice University iirc with Toshiba." (A Rice news release states the process "could more than pay for itself.")

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"Usually you have to take these to stores that also recycle plastic grocery bags if I'm not mistaken," another wrote. 

Others joked about Amazon's lack of trustworthiness. 

"A massive corporation with nothing to show other than human exploitation and record-breaking profits lied to you?" someone else said. "How strange."

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