How much waste does Amazon produce?
In 2026, Amazon is estimated to be using approximately 66,500 (146,6 million pounds) metric tons of plastic packaging. This estimate is based on trends and reduction initiatives implemented in previous years. Amazon continues to focus on sustainability, aiming to minimize environmental impacts through innovative packaging solutions and phasing out non-recyclable materials.
Amazon's ongoing commitment to sustainability, reflected in innovative packaging solutions and the elimination of non-recyclable materials, is driving meaningful change. By 2026, these efforts are estimated to bring Amazon's plastic packaging usage down to around 66,500 metric tons, marking a 5% reduction from the previous year.
Amazon's plastic packaging waste over recent years
This scheme outlines the trends in Amazon's plastic packaging waste from 2019 to 2026, highlighting significant changes and reductions. The data reflects Amazon's sustainability efforts, including the impact of increased e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent initiatives aimed at minimizing their environmental impact.
| Year | Plastic packaging waste (Metric Tons) | Change from previous year (Metric Tons) | Change from previous year (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 66,500 | -3,500 | -5% |
| 2025 | 70,000 | -4,137 | -5.6% |
| 2024 | 74,137 | -14,561 | -16.4% |
| 2023 | 88,698 | +2,782 | +3% |
| 2022 | 85,916 | -11,306 | -11.6% |
| 2021 | 97,222 | -174,778 | -64.3% |
| 2020 | 272,000 | +61,000 | +29% |
| 2019 | 211,000 | N/A | N/A |
Note: The figures for 2025 and 2026 are estimates based on projected trends and reduction initiatives. Amazon didn't publish detailed plastic waste data before 2019 because sustainability reporting wasn't widely required.
What is Amazon?
Amazon is a global technology and e-commerce giant founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994.
Initially starting as an online bookstore, Amazon quickly transformed into a vast marketplace offering a diverse range of products and services, including electronics, clothing, groceries, and more. Its digital services, such as Amazon Prime Video, Kindle, and Alexa, cater to entertainment and convenience, while its robust cloud computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS), supports businesses worldwide.
Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, originally an e-bookstore.
Amazon's operations span the globe, with a particularly strong presence in the United States and European markets. The company's focus on customer satisfaction, continuous innovation, and efficient delivery systems has solidified its position as a leader in both the retail and technology sectors. Additionally, Amazon's commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility highlights its role as an influential player in shaping global business practices.
Amazon's plastic packaging use by region (2023–2026)
The chart and table below show plastic packaging use across Amazon's three main regions from 2023 to 2024, with estimates for 2025 and 2026.
Table showing plastic packaging use across Amazon’s main regions
The chart and table show, that North America carries almost the entire weight of Amazon's plastic problem. In 2023, the U.S. and Canada alone accounted for 83,513 metric tons — more than 94% of the company's global total of 88,698 metric tons. By contrast, Europe barely registers on the chart, the result of a 2022 transition to fully recyclable paper and cardboard packaging across the entire European fulfillment network, where 87 fulfillment centers have stopped using plastic packaging for deliveries entirely.
Chart showing plastic packaging use across Amazon’s main regions
| Region | 2023 (tonnes) | 2024 (tonnes) | 2025 est. (tonnes) | 2026 est. (tonnes) | Change 2023 → 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 877 | 894 | 870 | 850 | −3.1% |
| North America | 83,513 | 68,679 | 60,400 | 55,600 | −33.4% |
| Rest of World | 4,308 | 4,564 | 4,700 | 4,770 | +10.7% |
| Global total | 88,698 | 74,137 | 65,970 | 61,220 | −31.0% |
Note: The 2025 and 2026 figures are estimates assuming Amazon continues at its current pace. The company has not set a target date for fully eliminating plastic from its packaging — only that it is "working toward the goal" and tracking progress in its annual sustainability reports.
The numbers in the table cover a vast operation. Amazon runs more than 1,300 warehouses worldwide and processes around 26 million orders every single day — meaning even a single percentage point of plastic reduction translates into thousands of tonnes of material across the year.
An Amazon warehouse in Romeoville, Illinois, where workers pack and ship a share of the company's 26 million daily orders.
How environmentally conscious is Amazon?
As a global leader in e-commerce and technology, Amazon plays a significant role in contributing to climate change, necessitating a commitment to sustainable practices. Over the years, heightened awareness and increasing consumer and regulatory pressure have pushed Amazon to focus more on its environmental responsibilities. This has led to ambitious initiatives aimed at reducing its carbon footprint and promoting sustainability across its operations.
Amazon's journey reveals a progression from basic sustainability efforts to adopting comprehensive strategies targeting various aspects of environmental impact. The company's current initiatives underscore its commitment to addressing climate change seriously. By exploring these initiatives, we can assess whether Amazon's actions align with its responsibility to mitigate environmental impacts.
In 2024, Amazon completed its biggest packaging shift to date:
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Removed all plastic air pillows from global fulfillment centers, replacing them with paper filler made from 100% recycled content
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Eliminated roughly 15 billion plastic air pillows annually — the largest plastic packaging reduction in its North American history
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Avoided 134 million plastic delivery bags by switching to made-to-fit paper bags
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56% of North American fulfillment centers no longer use any plastic packaging
Amazon's progress on cutting packaging waste
Packaging is one of the most visible parts of Amazon's environmental footprint, and one of the easiest for customers to judge for themselves. With billions of packages shipped each year, even small changes to how things are wrapped add up fast. Drawing on figures from Amazon's 2024 Sustainability Report, the tables and text below show where plastic is being cut, where it still turns up, and how much waste the company says it has avoided along the way.
Share of Amazon shipments containing plastic (by region)
Not all Amazon customers get the same package. Across Europe, single-use plastic has been stripped out of deliveries entirely. North America made a big leap in 2024. The rest of the world tells a quieter story — as the table below shows.
| Region | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 (est.) | 2026 (est.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| North America | 65% | 37% | 28% | 22% |
| Rest of world | 14% | 16% | 17% | 17% |
| Global | 45% | 26% | 18% | 14% |
Cumulative single-use plastic avoided since 2020
Once Amazon started pulling plastic out of its packaging mix, the savings started piling up fast. The cumulative total nearly doubled in a single year, with North America carrying most of that growth — as the table below shows.
| Region | Avoided through 2023 (MT) | Avoided through 2024 (MT) | Avoided through 2025 (MT, est.) | Avoided through 2026 (MT, est.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Europe | 14,600 | 20,660 | 26,200 | 31,200 |
| North America | 41,600 | 90,932 | 129,000 | 161,000 |
| Rest of world | 24,300 | 40,470 | 54,500 | 67,500 |
| Global total | 80,500 | 152,062 | 209,700 | 259,700 |
How the estimates are calculated
There's no official Amazon data for 2025 or 2026 yet — those columns are estimates based on the current trend. Here's the reasoning behind them:
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The 2023→2024 jump won't repeat at the same pace. Most of the recent progress came from one big change: replacing all plastic air pillows with paper filler. That program started as a pilot in Euclid, Ohio in late 2023 and scaled to hundreds of North American fulfillment centers within twelve months. It was a one-time win, so future changes will deliver smaller year-on-year improvements.
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What's left is harder to remove. The remaining plastic is mostly thin mailers and padded envelopes used to protect fragile or awkwardly-shaped products. Paper alternatives for these formats exist but are still being tested and rolled out gradually, so the savings come in smaller, steadier increments rather than in big jumps.
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Different regions move at different speeds. Europe has already reached its floor and adds little new each year. North America keeps trending in the right direction but more slowly. The rest of the world stays roughly flat, because progress there has historically tracked local plastic regulations rather than Amazon's own targets.
Amazon's broader sustainability efforts in 2024
Plastic gets most of the attention, but it's only one part of how Amazon is trying to shrink the environmental footprint of its operations.
The 2024 Sustainability Report covers a much wider range of changes:
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Shipments are going out in their original manufacturer packaging rather than an extra Amazon box.
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Deliveries are being made by a growing fleet of electric vans replacing diesel ones.
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Returns are being avoided through troubleshooting support that helps customers fix products before sending them back.
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Unsold items are being donated rather than thrown out.
Most of these changes are invisible to the average customer. A package that arrives without an Amazon-branded outer box, or a delivery van that runs on electricity instead of diesel, doesn't look any different on the doorstep. But across billions of orders a year, the numbers add up to something significant.
Key numbers from Amazon's 2024 operations:
| Metric | 2024 value |
|---|---|
| Reduction in single-use plastic delivery packaging globally | 16.4% |
| Cumulative packaging materials avoided since 2015 (MT) | 4,200,000 |
| Plastic bags avoided in N. America via automated packing machines | 134,000,000 |
| Unique products certified for Ships in Product Packaging | ~18,000,000 |
| New seller products newly certified in 2024 | ~2,000,000 |
| Cumulative shipments delivered in original packaging only since 2020 (N. America + Europe) | 6,000,000,000+ |
| Packages delivered globally via electric vehicles | 1,500,000,000 |
| Returns avoided via product lifecycle support program | 14,000,000 |
| Items donated or supported sellers in donating worldwide | 166,000,000+ |
| Retail items sold on Amazon Outlet | 68,000,000 |
| Damaged-items reduction within Amazon operations vs 2023 | -29% |
Amazon's environmental initiatives and pollution reduction efforts
As a major global platform and significant contributor to carbon footprints, Amazon recognizes its responsibility to lead in environmental initiatives. Below is a list of key actions the company is taking to reduce its environmental impact and promote sustainability.
The Climate Pledge
In 2019, Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge, committing to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement's goal. This commitment involves transitioning to renewable energy, implementing energy-efficient practices, and encouraging other companies to join the pledge.
The Amazon Wind Park Indiana was part of The Climate Pledge founded in 2019.
Renewable Energy Investments
Amazon has become the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy globally for five consecutive years. The company has supported over 600 wind and solar projects worldwide, contributing to the generation of clean energy equivalent to powering 8.3 million U.S. homes.
Sustainable Transportation
To reduce emissions from its delivery network, Amazon has committed to deploying 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030. This initiative aims to decrease the carbon footprint associated with logistics and transportation.
Sustainable Packaging
Amazon is actively working to minimize packaging waste by optimizing packaging sizes, increasing the use of recyclable materials, and eliminating unnecessary packaging components. These efforts are part of the company's broader strategy to reduce its environmental impact.
Carbon Credit Initiatives
Amazon utilizes carbon credits to support projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as forest conservation and restoration efforts. These projects help offset emissions and contribute to global climate change mitigation.
For more detailed information on Amazon's sustainability efforts, you can visit their Sustainability Hub.