Stakeholders demand for plastic-free packaging

• Amazon customers want plastic-free packaging • Amazon's shareholders are calling on the company to take action on its plastic problem

Amazon’s first leadership principle is customer obsession,98 and top company executives are regularly quoted in the press about the company’s relentless and guiding focus on pleasing those who buy from Amazon.99 Its mission is to “be Earth’s most customer-centric company.”100 Based on this principle, it should take immediate action to offer customers plastic-free packaging as an option at checkout.

Public opinion research sponsored by Oceana101 in 2020 found that Amazon customers are overwhelmingly concerned about plastic pollution and its impact on the oceans and want Amazon (and other major online retailers) to give them plastic-free packaging choices. Oceana supporter Nicole Delma created a Change.org/ PlasticFreeChoice petition to ask Amazon for plastic-free options at checkout. By the end of November 2021, more than 741,000 people have already added their names to the petition.102

At Amazon’s 2021 annual general meeting (AGM), 35.5%103 of its shareholders voted for a resolution to require the e-commerce giant to issue a report by year-end quantifying its use of single-use plastics and providing recommendations for how to reduce its plastic footprint. The resolution was presented by Conrad MacKerron, Senior Vice President of As You Sow and filed by As You Sow along with Green Century. Support for the resolution, which was expected to be defeated at this initial meeting, exceeded expectations. It received the second most “yes” votes of any of the 14 shareholder resolutions considered at the company’s 2021 AGM.