Amazon is fueling the plastic pollution problem. Think about the last Amazon delivery you got; the plastic bags, plastic air pillows, plastic shrink-wrap, plastic film, plastic-lined envelopes.
Plastic, plastic and more plastic. According to one estimate, in 2021 alone Amazon generated over 700 million pounds of plastic waste. That's enough to wrap the Earth in plastic air pillows 800 times over.
Plastic never goes away. It just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics. In fact, plastic ends up virtually everywhere on the planet — from the top of Mount Everest to the bottom of the Pacific's Mariana Trench and in the stomachs of birds and marine life — and even in our own bodies. Researchers say we breathe, drink or eat the equivalent of a credit card-sized dose of plastic every week. This helps explain why researchers are finding plastic residues in human lungs, blood, livers and even breast milk.
Amazon's packages might arrive in one day. But the plastic lasts virtually forever.
Amazon can keep hundreds of millions of pounds of plastic out of the trash each year by adopting and perfecting alternatives. The company has already committed to cut single-use plastic packaging in Germany and India. And it's announced a plan to phase out some plastic packaging here in the U.S. Why not all?
Join us in calling on Amazon to cut plastic packaging.
To Amazon CEO Andy Jassy:
Amazon creates an enormous amount of plastic waste with single-use packaging that we just don't need. Plastic waste is harming our communities and polluting our environment, and the problem is only getting worse.
We, the undersigned, urge you to get rid of unnecessary plastic packaging to help end the waste crisis.
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