Amazon Fresh Singapore will deliver all frozen goods ordered on its platform with fully recyclable frozen water bottles. The country will be the first in Asia where Amazon will deploy this new form of packaging as part of the company’s sustainability efforts.
All orders containing frozen or chilled products such as meat, seafood and ice cream will be accompanied by frozen water bottles instead of gel packs to keep the products cold and fresh in transit.
The bottles are 100-per-cent recyclable and the water inside can be used for drinking, cooking, or watering plants. Once empty, they can be conveniently dropped in blue recycle bins across the country for recycling.
As food and grocery delivery services increase in popularity, the doors have opened to a whole new problem for the planet – what to do with leftover ice packs and other packaging. Super absorbent polymer, a microplastic in gel ice packs, causes various environmental problems when disposed of at landfills or incineration. But, can frozen water bottles work as well?
Manuel Berbuer, GM of operations at Amazon Singapore, said the switch to frozen water bottles underwent extensive testing and research to provide the best solution for the country’s hot and humid weather and to ensure that the freshness of products was not compromised.
“We know that Singaporeans are increasingly incorporating more sustainable measures in their day-to-day lives,” said Berbuer
“As conscious corporate citizens, we are cognizant of the need to work on our processes to use more sustainable packaging continuously, and this is a step in that direction. It has been humbling to create a solution that enables customers to recycle a part of their Amazon package easily.”
As part of its efforts to create more sustainable packaging, the company said it is closely working with its vendors and suppliers to enable ‘Ship in its own container’ solutions and reduce the volume of packaging used to deliver products.
