Amazon recently announced that its Frustration-Free Packaging initiative, a multi-year effort to liberate products from hermetically sealed clamshell cases and plastic-coated steel-wire ties, now offers more than 200,000 items, up from 19 when the initiative was launched five years ago. In an effort to alleviate the frustration many people experience when opening toys and electronics, Amazon works with leading manufacturers to deliver products inside smaller, easy-to-open, recyclable cardboard boxes that reduce the overall amount of packaging used while still protecting what’s inside.
“We’ve all experienced the frustration of trying to remove a product from nearly impenetrable packaging like plastic clamshell cases and products bound by dozens of wire ties,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. “We’ve worked with both manufacturers and customers to design Frustration-Free Packaging that is easy-to-open, protects the product and reduces waste. We now have more than 2,000 manufacturers in the program.”
Launched in 2008 with 19 products, participation in the initiative has grown from 4 to over 2,000 manufacturers, including Fisher-Price, Mattel, Unilever, Seventh Generation, Belkin, Victorinox Swiss Army, Logitech and many more. To date, Amazon has shipped over 75 million Frustration-Free items to 175 countries.
Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging also reduces waste for customers. So far, Frustration-Free Packaging has:
• Eliminated 58.9 million square feet of cardboard,
• Removed 24.7 million pounds of packaging, and
• Reduced box sizes by 14.5 million cubic feet.