Plastic waste

Just last month, Jeff Bezos, the CEO and founder of Amazon, announced that he would be donating $791m to 16 environmental organisations to help combat the effects of climate change. The impressive donation is coming from a $10bn fund set up in February to address this critical issue. Amazon also launched the ‘Climate Pledge’ last September, which encompasses several ambitious goals, including a commitment to be carbon neutral by 2040. Unfortunately, as Amazon and its leader make news for their contributions to the fight against climate change, plastic packaging used by Amazon floods municipal waste systems and, a part of it, pollutes waterways and seas around the world.

According to a new Oceana report, Amazon generated an estimated 465 million pounds of air pillows, bubble wrap and other plastic packaging waste in 2019, which, in the form of air pillows, would provide enough plastic to circle the Earth more than 500 times. Up to 22 million pounds of this waste, the report estimates, found its way into freshwater and marine ecosystems – the equivalent of a delivery van full of plastic packaging being dumped into the world’s waterways and oceans every 70 minutes. The company disputes these figures but has not yet provided alternative data or specific estimates – by country – for its and its marketplace vendors’ plastic footprint.

Marine animals can mistake plastic for food, or swallow it inadvertently while feeding or swimming. Once swallowed, plastic can obstruct their digestive tracks or lacerate their intestines, leaving them unable to feed or obtain nourishment. These problems can lead to starvation and death. Recent studies estimate that 90 percent of all seabirds and 52 percent of all sea turtles have ingested plastic. According to a recent Oceana study, some 88 percent of animals that have swallowed or have been entangled in plastic were members of species listed as endangered or threatened with extinction under the Endangered Species Act.

As part of its efforts to reduce waste and combat climate change, Amazon has recently prioritised the use of flexible lightweight packaging partially made of plastic over more-bulky non-plastic options such as cardboard boxes. But while doing so, it failed to fully acknowledge the additional environmental damage its increased use of plastic would cause to the seas.

Plastics are not only a danger to marine ecosystems but also a major contributor to climate change. If plastics were a country, they would be the planet’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Amazon’s efforts to reduce its fuel use, waste and emissions are laudable. However, the company’s apparent embrace of plastic packaging is highly problematic. Climate change and the plastics crisis are intrinsically linked – it is counterproductive to try and address one problem without addressing the other.

Excerpted: ‘Amazon must stop flooding our oceans with plastic waste’

Aljazeera.com