Every year, millions of shoppers wait for the moment the countdown hits zero. Amazon Prime Day. Flipkart Big Billion Days. Flash sales, limited-time offers, two-day deals. Within hours, hundreds of millions of orders are placed. What follows is a packaging reckoning the industry rarely talks about.
E-commerce packaging waste is one of the fastest-growing environmental challenges in the consumer goods sector. And high-volume sales events sit at the epicentre of it.
The Scale of the Problem
Online retail now accounts for 20.1% of all global retail sales, totalling $6.334 trillion in 2024.¹
That growth has a packaging cost. According to the UN’s 2024 Digital Economy Report, e-commerce generates 4.8 times more packaging waste than goods sold in brick-and-mortar stores.² Unlike a physical retail purchase, where a shopper carries a product home in minimal packaging, every online order requires protective layers: cardboard boxes, plastic air pillows, bubble wrap, adhesive tape, and paper fillers.
The e-commerce industry was estimated to use approximately one million tonnes of plastic packaging in 2019. That figure is projected to exceed two million tonnes by 2025.³ Globally, around 167 billion parcels were shipped in 2023, with that number expected to reach 200 billion by end of 2025.¹
Flash Sales, Faster Waste
High-discount events dramatically compress consumer decision-making. When a deal expires in hours, purchases happen faster, with less deliberation and return rates climb as a result. Shoppers order multiples to try, keep one, and send the rest back.
The packaging impact of returns alone is staggering. A CleanHub report found that online shopping returns generate nearly five times more packaging waste than in-person returns, and emit up to 24 million metric tonnes of CO₂ annually.⁴ Total retail returns in 2024 reached $685 billion representing 13.2% of all sales.⁵
Amazon Prime Day alone illustrates the magnitude. In 2023, shoppers ordered more than 375 million items over two days.⁶ Estimates for Prime Day 2026 suggest that approximately 280.8 million boxes could be shipped during the event, using around 70,200 tonnes of cardboard.⁷
Plastic: The Persistent Offender
While cardboard draws headlines, plastic remains the more damaging material. Amazon generated an estimated 709 million pounds of plastic packaging waste in 2021, with up to 26 million pounds ending up in waterways and oceans.⁸
Protective packaging accounts for 35% of global e-commerce plastic use, while pouches and bags account for a further 32%.¹ The blue-and-white bubble mailer has become an icon of online retail and of the plastic pollution problem. Only 5% of plastic in the US gets meaningfully recycled, despite widespread consumer belief that curbside collection handles the rest.⁸
Sales events intensify the pace of plastic consumption by compressing order volumes into narrow windows. Fulfilment centres prioritise speed over packaging efficiency. The result: more void fill, more protective layers, more single-use plastic per unit shipped.
Industry Response: Progress, but Not Enough
To its credit, Amazon has made measurable commitments. The company reported a 28% drop in North American shipments containing single-use plastic packaging and claims to have avoided more than four million metric tonnes of packaging since 2015.⁹ Over 50% of Amazon’s European shipments now arrive in recyclable or no packaging.⁷
The company has also phased out 95% of air pillows in US shipments, partnered with Mondi to develop paper-based recyclable mailers, and is piloting home-compostable packaging made from crop residues in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee.⁹
But structural change remains slow. The ‘Amazon Day’ delivery option, which allows customers to consolidate shipments into a single weekly delivery, reduced average box use by 20% in 2024.⁷ Yet it remains opt-in, and urgency-driven shoppers during flash sales are unlikely to prioritise it.
What Needs to Change
The packaging industry is already evolving: the sustainable packaging market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7.67%, reaching $423.56 billion by 2029.³ Consumer appetite is there too. 56% of consumers say it is important for brands to offer reusable products and packaging.³
Addressing e-commerce packaging waste requires action on several fronts:
Right-sizing packaging at fulfilment centres, particularly during high-volume events when speed dominates decisions.
Mandatory sustainable delivery consolidation options, with incentives for consumers to choose slower, batched delivery.
Extended producer responsibility (EPR) frameworks that hold retailers accountable for packaging generated during high-volume sales periods.
Transparent reporting on packaging waste generated per major sales event, not just annual figures.
The Bottom Line
Flash sales and two-day discount festivals are not going away. But the packaging consequences of each click need to be part of the conversation, not buried in annual sustainability reports.
For packaging professionals and brands, the challenge is clear: design systems that hold up under surge conditions, not just everyday volumes. Because when the next Prime Day countdown hits zero, 280 million boxes will be on their way.
Citations
1. Woola — Online Shopping Packaging Waste Statistics (2025)
2. IISD — Addressing the Environmental Footprint of E-Commerce (UN Digital Economy Report 2024)
3. Woola — Online Shopping Packaging Waste Statistics: Sustainable Packaging Market
4. Packaging Europe — Report: E-commerce Returns Driving Up Waste, Emissions and Costs (2024)
5. Appriss Retail — From Cart to Landfill: Reducing Retail Waste with Sustainable Returns (2025)
6. Environment America — The Hidden Cost of Amazon Prime Days (2024)
7. Packaging Europe — Amazon Prime Day Event Could Generate 70,200 Tons of Cardboard Waste (2026)
8. Food & Water Watch — Amazon’s Biggest Delivery: Millions of Pounds of Plastic Pollution (2024)