Get those gloves on, or send an email.

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All / Coexistence & Harmony / Getting Started

Ever looked at decomposed material in a plastic bag? It’s sand that is all that it is. With no trace of what it previously was—your favourite chocolate, milk, or prosciutto (vacuum packed, sealed, and imported from Italy)—except from what is still visible on the packaging.

Packaged food contributes to our experience of pleasure and our habit of convenience (packaged food is not about hunger or nutrition, so please let us not justify our greed), and what remains of it merges with sand. But plastic fills the sea, unable to decompose (or to swim), carried by the waves onto the shore, lodged in sand, and trapped between rocks. Many hands come together to dislodge it, gather it, and send it away to be buried in landfills. Still, there is always more.

Plastic waste cleanup mumbai, india
Get those gloves on.

Will it ever be completely clean? Not till the spewing stops. While we do things to cut the flow—consciously reduce our pleasure-seeking habits, carry our own bamboo straws, bottles, and bags—there is a lot that is already circulating that needs to be removed from the sea and the shore. We can’t protect the soil from landfills, and the air from incinerated plastic (not yet), but we can clean up the shoreline, with hope that the ocean will be free of plastic waste, and the sand will have ripples and patterns once again.

We can get those gloves on, or we can request Amazon for no air-fillers, and plastic in our packaging, especially where there is no risk of damage.

Email Amazon’s customer service team at cs-reply@amazon.com (International), or cs-reply@amazon.in (India) and make a request for an option to choose plastic-free packaging before you confirm an order. They are open to suggestions and feedback.

Amazon chat screenshot
A big applause to Amazon for trying to build a customer-friendly company.

Here’s an example email you can use asking Amazon to add the feature.

Hi,

My name is _________. The email address attached to my Amazon account is __________.
I am requesting that Amazon add a feature that gives me the option to choose plastic-free packaging before confirming an order.

Thank you.

Acknowledgement and an important fact.Thank you

https://earth911.com/business-policy/reduce-amazon-packaging-waste/ for the idea.
https://www.instagram.com/jay4oceans/?hl=en
Plastic waste is one of many types of wastes that take too long to decompose. Normally, plastic items can take up to 1000 years to decompose in landfills. But plastic bags we use in our everyday life take 10-1000 years to decompose, while plastic bottles can take 450 years or more. – https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-long-does-it-take-garbage-to-decompose-2878033
https://www.amazon.in/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201910390&refTag=pkg_sl_form

The Author

I began as a blog about a book that was produced with care and respect for the environment, and included the binding skills and creativity of those who may not have use of their legs but their hands have the deftness to make. Today my voice continues to lend itself to topics that include humans, non-humans, nature, and equity. I observe, experience, research, understand, and share perspective and stories.

3 Comments

  1. Gouri says

    When Amazon leads others follow ! So thank you Amazon and Kyo and Obi ! There’s hope yet !

  2. B Mundhra says

    Please be a little considerate for plastic. Tin containers and glass bottles were not eco friendly either. It is the habit of littering that has to be looked into, making it difficult to reuse or recycle plastic. Think of the early twentieth century, when it was difficult to preserve or transport any perishable item.

  3. Brajmohandas Mundhra says

    Kudos to Amazon for being so concerned about the future of humanity, though I think think that we are not being fair to Plastic. Any thing that requires preservation needs a container. Tin containers and glass bottles were more energy guzzling and hence equally eco unfriendly. What we have to really look into is the habit of littering, which makes it difficult to reuse or recycle plastic.

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