Customers want right-sized, recyclable packaging that minimises waste and ensures damage-free delivery, which is why we aim to avoid unnecessary packaging whenever possible. When this is not an option, we optimise the type, material, and weight of our packaging to increase circularity, avoid waste, and reduce carbon emissions—without sacrificing safety or functionality.
As part of this commitment, our packaging scientists and engineers, alongside Mondi, have developed a new paper-padded envelope with shock-absorbent, paper-based lining that protects deliveries without using any plastic content—unlike envelopes lined with bubble wrap which had been used previously.
This latest design is simple and effective, and designed to keep products securely in place, while simultaneously absorbing stress put on the package during its journey to a customer’s home.
Due to the lightweight lining, the package itself is much lighter than equivalent-sized cardboard boxes, avoiding 44g of packaging per shipment, on average. They are also easy to fill without wasted space due to their greater flexibility, and the fact they don’t require additional padding materials to be added, such as recyclable paper dunnage.
“Amazon stopped using traditional bubble-wrap padded envelopes in Europe several years ago, which presented a challenge to develop light, flexible and fully recyclable paper packaging that provides the same protection,” said Thais Blumer, European Head of Sustainable Packaging for Amazon. “Achieving both low weight and maximum protection with a 100% recyclable paper envelope was not an easy task, but these envelopes are easy to pack, simple for customers to recycle at home, and enable damage-free deliveries.”
The new paper-padded envelope gets its strength from the specially engineered lightweight paper used for the outer package, paired with a corrugate inner lining that provides resilience and protection, in spite of only being a few millimetres thick.
The flexible design of this lining also features multiple ridges, allowing the packaging to fold around its contents in a way that makes it simple and quick to pack. By preventing goods from shifting inside the package, the envelope safeguards products in transit, until they arrive safely at customers’ homes.
“Together with Amazon, we spent several months testing our designs, evaluating various padding options such as honeycomb and embossed bubble paper. Ultimately, open-flute padding—a flat paper sheet attached to a sheet of ridged paper—proved to be the best solution,” explained Pedro Cuesta, a packaging engineer from Mondi. “Creating a plastic-free padded mailer for ecommerce packaging has been an exciting collaborative journey towards a more sustainable future. We are proud that Amazon customers all over Europe could soon be receiving orders in these envelopes.”
The new paper-padded envelopes are available in three sizes and can be used to protect single and multiple items. These include common everyday purchases ranging from skincare and health supplements to home and office items, as well as toys.
Amazon’s European padded-padded envelope was recognised as the best ‘E-commerce’ packaging at the 2024 Packaging Europe Sustainability Awards. The innovative packaging solution also won best packaging in the recycling category of the 2024 ALL4PACK Innovation Award, and as a success story of fiber-based packaging products designed for circularity at this year’s 4evergreen conference.
More than 50% of our European shipments now come in reduced, recyclable delivery packaging, such as a paper bag or cardboard envelope or—in the case of 700 million shipments since 2019—no added packaging at all through Amazon’s Ships in Product Packaging programme. Since 2015, we have reduced packaging per-shipment weight by 43%, representing more than three million metric tons of packaging materials avoided.
When packaging is reduced, we can also fit more packages into every van, leading to fewer journeys and bringing us closer to our goal of being net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040.
Discover more about Amazon’s packaging innovations here.
