Online retail giant Amazon has launched a new strategy to transform materials traditionally difficult to recycle into opportunities for reuse, repurposing and recycling, as part of its broader commitment to waste reduction and circularity.
The initiative is driven by Amazon’s view of waste as a “defect” and its ambition to keep materials productive by adopting re-use, repurposing and recycling solutions rather than sending them to landfill or incineration.
Amazon’s new approach focuses on six actions to address hard-to-recycle waste streams:
- Identifying vendors specialising in niche recycling – e.g., working with partners in the US and UK to recycle complex packaging materials such as label backing paper and multi‐material shelving fabrics.
- Phasing out certain single-use materials – including tests in Italy to eliminate hard-to-recycle shipping-label backing and increased use of reusable carts over pallets and shrink-wrap.
- Investing in equipment – for instance, installing balers to compact plastic shrink-wrap at high-volume sites to render it suitable for recycling.
- Using AI and advanced data – deploying smart cameras and AI systems (such as the “Oscar Sort” assistant) in fulfillment centres and offices to analyse waste streams in real-time and identify contamination patterns.
- Implementing new collection processes – for sites with low volumes of specific materials, Amazon is trialling central collection hubs to aggregate waste material and raise recycling feasibility from 73% in 2025 to 100% in 2026.
- Keeping materials in use via remanufacturing or repurposing – in the UK, Amazon is exploring reuse of durable polypropylene straps from cargo securing into home-ware objects such as soap dishes.
As part of its global operations, Amazon says that in its retail network cardboard and wood make up 65 % of its waste stream, and nearly all of that was recycled in 2024. The tougher challenge, Amazon states, lies in the “hard-to-recycle” materials—those lacking standard processing or requiring bespoke solutions.
Amazon employs a combination of dashboards, waste audits, and AI-based monitoring to identify materials lacking recycling pathways and to develop scalable solutions. The company’s pilot-first approach allows it to test new methods at smaller scale before wider rollout.
The announcement emphasises the global nature of the challenge—recycling infrastructure varies significantly by country, demanding flexible and creative solutions.
Amazon’s initiative signals growing recognition among large logistics and retail operators that tackling “hard” waste streams is critical to achieving a circular economy. By focusing on remanufacturing, specialist recycling vendors and data-driven strategies, the company aims to go beyond standard recycling efforts.
The six-pronged strategy may also help Amazon to meet increasing regulatory and stakeholder expectations around waste, resource use and environmental impact—particularly as governments worldwide intensify regulation of plastic- and textile-waste streams. Amazon’s ambition to increase recycling of niche materials to 100 % of its sites by 2026 reflects such pressures.
In the words of Amazon Operations Manager Jon Woodward: “When others see trash, I see an opportunity to get creative with our processes and systems.”
The company says each pilot, whether successful or not, yields insights that inform its future efforts. “Every attempt—successful or not—provides insights that inform our future efforts,” Amazon said.
