Amazon announces bold new plan to shake up its deliveries: 'Pursuing changes'

Amazon has announced plans to enhance its packaging systems to reduce waste.

Over 70 automated machines will be installed at fulfilment centers across Europe to make made-to-fit packaging for customers' orders, according to Packaging Europe. These machines will help avoid unnecessary usage of materials in packaging.

Amazon has been responsible for a huge amount of paper and plastic waste over the years. It's making an effort to cut back on the waste, and the latest change is the installation of hundreds of automated packing machines in its European facilities.

Some of its changes in the past few years include reducing its packaging by 43% by weight, sending some of its items with no additional packaging other than the manufacturer's box, switching from plastic mailers to paper and cardboard, and switching from plastic cushions to recycled paper packing materials.

Amazon has eliminated over 88,700 tons of single-use plastic waste this way and also reduced the fuel needed for all those shipments, cutting back on air pollution that contributes to Earth's rising temperature.

"Amazon's primary focus is to decarbonize our global operations through our transition to renewable energy, building with more sustainable materials, and electrifying our delivery fleet and global logistics," explained Kara Hurst, Amazon's vice president and chief sustainability officer, per Sustainability Magazine.

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"We are also pursuing changes such as reducing the weight of packaging per shipment for our customers," Hurst continued. "At the same time, we also need to seek every possible avenue to reduce carbon in the atmosphere."

The newest initiative using automated packaging machines echoes a recent update in the U.S., in which 120 machines were retrofitted to create custom-sized paper bags to replace plastic ones.

While these changes are encouraging, Amazon is still a major producer of waste and pollution. It has reneged on earlier promises to cancel out its carbon air pollution from shipping by 2030, making its current efforts less impressive by comparison. Hopefully, time will bring it into line with the eco-friendly approach consumers are looking for.

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