I’m back with an update!

Amazon says it will not participate in a packaging pick up program, in Marin County or anywhere, so the focus of the Amazon Initiative has changed.

It’s now a Reusable E-Commerce Packaging Ordinance that individual cities, counties, and waste districts can adopt.  It asks all retailers to keep all e-commerce packaging out of the public waste system through reuse.

Retailers have any number of ways to collect and reuse their packaging materials: elimination and reduction of e-commerce packaging, sturdy reusable delivery totes, tote pickup at the time of delivery or on a subsequent delivery, tote collection centers, tote re-manufacturing into new totes, tote recycling, and so on.  And the beauty of this is that pickup and reuse can be done in the regular course of business, with no extra trips, and with the help of Fed Ex, UPS, and USPS.

Communities will no longer have to fund the disposal of millions of tons of e-commerce packaging for retailers. 

This draft ordinance authorizes local waste management companies to run a Pay-Per-Ton program, charge for the custom removal of large volumes of e-commerce waste from the waste system, and return e-commerce packaging to retailers at a local waste drop off site.

Garbage will decrease by twenty percent or more, residents will save millions in refuse fees, insidious greenhouse gas emissions will be measurably reduced, and retailers will save millions in virgin packaging costs. 

The draft Reusable E-Commerce Packaging Ordinance is being shepherded by the Sierra Club Bay Chapter, Zero Waste Committee, through the city and county legislative process, and Plastic Free Marin is looking for test beds.

Ann Schneider, Mayor of Millbrae, CA, says her city is a possible “test city”; Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters says Marin County, CA, is a possible “test county”.

Want to be a part of it with your own city?  Send us a note.

It’s a Prime Solution!

Contact:

Carolyn Lund, carolynelund@yahoo.com, (415) 717-4656

Member, Sierra Club Bay Chapter, Zero Waste Committee

Photo:  Good Eggs delivery box