The plastic produced by Amazon's packaging could envelop up to 500 times the entire planet

Amazon produced a whopping 210.000 tons of plastic packaging waste this year. Oceana's shock report

How much does Amazon affect the plastic pollution of our planet? Far too much. To get an idea of the plastic packaging produced by the e-commerce giant, just imagine a gigantic roll of "bubble wrap", also known as "bubble wrap", wrapped around the Earth. And not once, but at least 500. This is the estimate of the environmental association Oceana, which recently published a report on the pollution generated by Amazon packaging.

According to the largest international organization committed to protecting the oceans, the multinational produced last year 210.000 tons of plastic waste deriving from the non-disposed packaging of its goods. And this is an alarming figure if we consider that the study does not take into account sales for 2020, the year in which - thanks to the global pandemic of Covid-19 - there was a boom in online sales which led to further enrichment. for the company of Jeff Bezos

“The amount of plastic waste the company generates is staggering and growing at a frightening rate,” said Matt Littlejohn, Oceana Senior Vice President. - “Our study found that plastic packaging and waste generated by Amazon's packages are mostly destined not for recycling, but for landfill, incineration or the environment, including, unfortunately, our waterways. and the sea, where plastic can harm marine life. It is time for Amazon to listen to its customers who, according to recent surveys, want plastic-free alternatives and are making a concrete commitment to reduce the impact of plastic “.

According to data from Oceana, plastic waste generated by Amazon is pouring into the rivers, seas and oceans of the world. It is as if during 2019 a van full of plastic was dumped into the waterways every 70 minutes.

Plastic is a major source of pollution and is destroying the ecosystems of the seas and oceans. As reiterated by Oceana, recent studies have estimated that 90% of all seabirds and over half of sea turtles have ingested plastic, mistaking it for food. Another even more worrying fact is that 88% of animals that ate plastic or got entangled in waste belong to endangered species. (ALSO READ: Birds are eating hundreds of bits of plastic every day, according to new studies)

Amazon's response to the numbers provided by Oceana

Oceana's 2019 report reveals that the type of plastic used for packaging by Amazon is not actually recycled in most cases. But the publication of the report by the environmental association was followed by the response of the giant Jeff Bezos, who tried to disprove the numbers of the report. In an email addressed to The Verge website, Amazon stated that it is committed to reducing plastic production and that it has used a quarter of Oceana's estimated packaging, which still corresponds to over 52 million kilos of plastic.

Oceana then retorted, confirming the figures in its report, accusing Amazon of little transparency on the real use of plastic by and underlining that "even if the small number claimed by the company for the footprint of plastic packaging were true, it would still be a ' huge amount of plastic waste, enough to shoot a thousand-bubble film around the Earth more than a hundred times, which could cause very big problems for the health of the oceans ”.

In fact, while Bezos' company is committing to using more flexible, hence less polluting, packaging, it has not yet shared clear data about its commitment to the use of total plastic, either through a spokesperson or in its most recent sustainability report. released in September.

And it is not only environmental associations such as Oceana that are asking Amazon for greater commitment against pollution, but above all customers from all over the world. In countries like the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, for example, 87% of people want Amazon and other online retailers to adopt plastic-free packaging.

Fonte: Oceana/The Verge