I love Amazon. I buy from them every week. I admire their management, skill, technology, innovation, etc. As an author, they are absolutely fantastic, and I thank them every day for their support. But …
I’m increasingly shocked by the amount of wasteful packaging in an Amazon shipment.
Sometimes I’ll get a book wrapped in a small cardboard sleeve … about as little waste as you can get and still get the package delivered.
But more often than not, I get a giant empty cardboard box, 5-6 plastic air fillers, plastic wrap around the book, a cardboard insert, and 4-5 flyers.
The last book I received had 3 pounds of waste.
This doesn’t even address the issue of whether or not mail-order is inherently wasteful (especially when you add fuel, etc.)
But Amazon needs to set a clear policy on packaging: Minimal necessary shipping material, every time.
If they continue with their current ways, I expect a green boycott very soon.
They get away with it because we love them. If Walmart tried to ship like that, we’d be screaming bloody murder.