Prime Now's freezer bags: an environmental investigation

I found this article when I went looking for recycling information. Over the last month I started using Amazon fresh, and for a family of 5's worth of groceries, these silver bubble bags end up filling an entire garbage bag to dispose of each week. Normally I have 3-4 garbage bags a week, so this is an increase of 25% to 30% in raw volume of garbage produced.

It's weighed on me more and more as my use of Fresh has increased. I used it the first time when I was sick and couldn't get out and other services were both more expensive and had no delivery slots when I needed them. Fresh was also cheaper on the items. Not everything, but about 10% on average overall, even after a tip to the driver, plus I get 5% cash back by using my Amazon card, so it's upwards of $60/month saved. That's hard to overlook.

But the packaging is so excessive for something that, basically, is untouchable for any likely recycling option. That's on top of the usual bad packaging re: space and packaging waste. Among my order, I received a single 8oz package of quacamole. It was delivered in it's own full-size large brown bag and one of the large silver-lined bubble packaging pieces, by itself. It's about 5x5x1 inches in diameter: It easily could fit, without fear of crushing, in any 4 of the other bags I had which were also insulated.

I feels like Amazon is having to re learnd so many of the lessons it's already been fixing in its traditional business. 5-7 years ago, crazy wastage on packaging was much more common with Amazon, and they've done a decent job improving (not eliminating) that issue, but with Fresh it's being taken to an entirely new level. And there's no rhyme or reason to it either: It doesn't seem like an abundance of caution to protect food, there's no pattern to it. In fact in one order they put a gallon of milk and 1.5 quarts of orange juice on top of a dozen eggs. Remarkably non broke, but this just evinces a pick-&-pack operation that either has little in the way of clear standard practices for this sort of thing, or if they exist the quality control for adherence is awful.

But it's the shear waste with those metallic bubble bags that's the worst. Literally a whole garbage bag filled by the 6 or 7 I receive.