Amazon is investing in new technologies to improve its packaging and reduce waste. At its innovation event "Delivering the Future," taking place on May 6 and 7 in Dortmund, the online retailer announced plans to introduce automated packaging technologies into its European logistics network over the next three years, including, for the first time in Europe, machines for producing custom-sized boxes. This will allow even more customers to receive their orders in optimally tailored packaging in the future.
According to Amazon, it plans to install hundreds of these automated packaging machines in European logistics centers. The technology is intended to help reduce the packaging volume of millions of shipments. By the end of 2025, more than 70 machines are coming to Germany, the
UK, France, Italy, and Spain – with over 30 of those to Germany alone. More will follow by 2027. From the perspective of the American company, custom-sized packaging can help reduce delivery emissions. With reduced material usage, less packaging waste, and better use of available space in delivery vehicles, more shipments can be transported with fewer vehicles.
"To further avoid waste, we need to reduce packaging. Machine learning and automation enable us to create perfectly fitting packaging while optimally protecting products," says Pat Lindner, VP Mechatronics and Sustainable Packaging at Amazon. "The automated packaging machines we are installing in our logistics centers across Europe benefit our customers as well as the planet. This investment is a significant step toward further reducing the environmental
impact of deliveries for our European customers."
Amazon relies on three new technologies to further reduce packaging:
- Custom-sized boxes: Boxes are used for heavier or more fragile items that need extra protection. For the first time in Europe, Amazon is introducing a machine for producing custom-sized boxes. The technology is based on automation and precise measurement technology. Employees place the product in the machine, which measures the dimensions using sensors. It then automatically produces a matching box. Finally, the machine directly attaches the shipping label.
- Fitted paper envelopes: According to the company, Amazon's packaging engineers have redesigned a machine that originally produced plastic envelopes to produce custom-sized paper bags instead. Sensors detect a product's dimensions, and the machine then creates a custom protective
- packaging from durable, weather-resistant paper. Following successful tests in logistics centers in Germany and the UK, this new technology is now being rolled out in both countries as well as in France, Italy, and Spain. According to Amazon, using these machines can save an average of more than 26 grams of packaging material per shipment. The paper bags used are up to 90 percent lighter than boxes of a similar size.
- Labeling: The Universal Robotic Labeller is a high-speed labeling machine that can apply smaller labels – 75 percent smaller than conventional labels – even to irregularly shaped products. The shipping labels can also be applied to products that are shipped in their original packaging. This eliminates, in many cases, the need for
