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Recycle and reuse your Amazon boxes
An easy way to practice sustainability is probably sitting somewhere in your house right now. You can reuse your cardboard Amazon boxes for a variety of purposes, including crafting, storage, moving, and shipping.
Amazon boxes are curbside recyclable, so if you don’t need them, make sure to place them in your recycling bin. Just make sure to remove any plastic packaging first. Learn more ways to use your Amazon boxes.
On our end, we’re continuously working to reduce packaging and increase its recyclability.
As you shop on Amazon, look for the Climate Pledge Friendly badge, which highlights that the product addresses at least one aspect of sustainability and has been certified by one or more qualifying sustainability certifications. These include Energy Star Most Efficient, Fair Trade Certified, The Forest Stewardship Council, and Global Organic Textile Standard, among many other stringent and reputable certifications. Additionally, Amazon developed its own certifications, Compact by Design and Pre-Owned Certified. The former aims to identify products that have a more efficient design, focusing on the removal of excess air and water; while the latter is an initiative to offer more circular product choices through resale of certain goods such as electronics and tools.
In addition to looking for the Climate Pledge Friendly label, you can shop all products in one place here and add “Sustainability” to Your Interests in your Amazon account. There are over 550,000 Climate Pledge Friendly products to browse.
If you don’t need your order right away, consider using the Amazon Day delivery option. It’s free and lets you choose a day of the week to receive your deliveries. Now, all your orders in a given week will arrive on one day. This option uses 30% fewer boxes on average, and in 2023, Amazon Day users saved 200 million boxes. You can choose to use Amazon Day at any time, plus you may receive a digital promotion reward for eligible orders.
Have old or outdated electronics laying around that you’re no longer using? Send them to the Amazon Trade-In program to potentially receive money back and a discount off a new product. Amazon Trade-In gives new life to old products by refurbishing them and reselling them, or recycling them if they can’t be resold.
The program accepts many types of small electronics, including Amazon devices, cell phones, and video games.
If your small electronic device doesn’t qualify for Trade In, you still may be able to send it to Amazon and we will recycle it for free.
Similarly, Amazon is home to other types of affordable, pre-owned and refurbished products. These items have been professionally inspected, and may be available for up to 50% off the price of the same, brand-new item:
- Amazon Renewed offers refurbished products with great prices on pre-owned smartphones, laptops, cameras, home appliances. Plus, all Renewed purchases are backed by our 90-day Amazon Renewed Guarantee.
- If an item doesn’t meet Amazon’s high standards to be put back on the virtual shelf and sold as new, it might qualify to be sold at a reduced price through Amazon Warehouse. With all the benefits of Amazon delivery, customer service, and convenient returns, Amazon Warehouse offers customers great deals on quality used, pre-owned, or open box products.
- When you trade in your used device, we’ll recycle or refurbish it. Plus, you’ll get an Amazon gift card and 20% off a new device.
- Save when you shop pre-owned. Amazon Certified Refurbished devices work and look like new.
Amazon Fashion and Luxury Stores offer pre-loved designer bags and accessories by Balenciaga, Celine, and more with Shopbop's Pre-Loved Edit, and by Louis Vuitton, Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Prada and more from What Goes Around Comes Around. In Rent the Runway’s brand store, you can also find pre-owned clothing from top designers such as Thakoon Collective, Nanushka, and Diane Von Furstenberg. With this selection, you can refresh your wardrobe with designer names for less and extend the life of quality clothing.
If a product qualifies, it will automatically begin to ship in its own packaging as the default, helping Amazon—and you—avoid excess packaging when possible.
The contents of your order will be just fine. In fact, there's an entire Packaging Innovation Lab in Seattle where we test a product’s original packaging to determine if it can be delivered safely without an Amazon box or bag.
About 11% of Amazon shipments globally now arrive in their original packaging, and we’re working on growing that number.
