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Amazon has been criticized for its negative impact on the environment. Critics have accused it of skirting environmental laws and of greenwashing. Amazon is the founding member of The Climate Pledge, a commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 for Amazon and other signatories to the pledge. However critics have claimed that the Climate Pledge amounts to little more than corporate PR due to the disconnect between the stated goals and the actions taken by the company. A number of Amazon's environmental actions and commitments, including the Climate Pledge, has come after sustained activism by employees and outsiders.

Overview

Amazon's negative impact on the environment can be attributed to their business presence in logistics, supply chain, data centers, and consumer products. The company's large scale along with a heavy reliance on fossil fuels and plastic, as well as their anti-environmental lobbying practices contribute to the criticism. The company has repeatedly failed to disclose their emissions data in the past and currently discloses a subset of emissions data in a format that isn't aligned with reporting standards.

Amazon's negative impact on the environment has been attributed to:

• Over-reliance on fossil fuel infrastructure in its delivery fleet
• Destruction of returned/unsold products instead of recycling
• Exporting plastic waste to be burnt in India
• Hyperscale data centers situated in electric grids largely dependent on fossil fuel based generation

Destruction of unsold and returned products

Amazon has engaged in destruction of unsold and returned products. An investigation by ITV in 2021 found that Amazon was destroying 130,000 items of unsold stock a week at one of the company's fulfillment centers in Scotland. The investigation uncovered a leaked document which had 124,000 items marked "destroy" and 28,000 items marked "donate". Amazon denied these claims. Amazon has faced similar accusations in Germany and France, with the countries enacting new laws to make it more difficult for Amazon to continue such practices.

Role in exporting plastic waste to be burnt in India

An investigation by Bloomberg in December 2022 revealed that plastic waste intended for recycling in the US was ending up in India where it was being burnt. The investigation did not single out Amazon but noted that the most ubiquitous packaging in the garbage heaps was by Amazon. The report also noted that Amazon's packaging was difficult to recycle:

Amazon’s bubble-lined plastic bags carry the recycling logo that’s often criticized for confusing consumers into thinking its packaging is easily recycled. Soft plastics used in bags and wrappers are some of the hardest and least economically viable materials to recycle. Most American recyclers can’t process them.

Amazon declined to comment on the report.

Sale of climate change denial books

Amazon has sold climate change denial books that have been criticized as disinformation. In an interview with the South China Morning Post and USA Today, the activist group Advance Democracy said that "no information panels popped up on video searches for 10 key phrases associated with climate change denial but did turn up an ad from Amazon linking to books that deny the existence of climate change." Alastair McIntosh, a professor at the University of Glasgow speaking for RealClimate, said that it was odd for Amazon to sell books with non-peer-reviewed science:

Chill ranked as number one in Amazon UK’s bestselling league for 'global warming'. Invariably I have found myself asking of such figures, who have no credibly peer-reviewed publications in climate science: what makes them think that they know better than experts with a reputation worth not losing?

References

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