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Amazon’s Plastic Mailers Jam Recycling Machinery

February 13, 2019

Via: Waste360

In an effort to fit more packages in delivery trucks and planes, retail and e-commerce giant Amazon has reduced the amount of shipments it packs in cardboard boxes and has opted for lighter-weight plastic mailers. That move, according to waste management experts, is having a negative effect on machinery at materials recovery facilities.

According to The Washington Post, the recent holiday season was the busiest for e-commerce and created “a massive hangover of packaging waste.” Amazon is by far the biggest shipper and producer of that waste—and a trendsetter, according to the report, meaning that its switch to plastic mailers could signal a shift across the industry.

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