Amazon Automated Fulfillment Center Eliminates Plastic Packaging
Amazon’s highly automated fulfillment center in Euclid, Ohio, has become the first in the U.S. to replace plastic delivery packaging with paper packaging solutions that are curbside recyclable. Like most retailers, Amazon has traditionally used a mix of plastic and paper packaging to optimize durability, weight, and size. However, recycling plastic packaging generally requires customers to head to a drop-off location, so Amazon’s packaging engineers have been researching and experimenting for years to find the right solutions to deliver products to customers with paper.
By rebuilding existing machines to use paper instead of plastic, creating durable and flexible paper packaging, improving made-to-fit technology, and transitioning from plastic air pillows to paper filler, the team enabled the Euclid fulfillment center to transition fully to paper packaging. This work is part of a multiyear effort to convert U.S. fulfillment centers to paper, and these new paper solutions will provide the convenience of allowing many customers to recycle at home.