A report by environmental group Oceana has found that plastic waste from Amazon packages went up by 18% last year, but Amazon says it has reduced its use of single-use plastic across its network.

According to the OceanaB次元官网网址檚 estimates, released Thursday, AmazonB次元官网网址檚 plastic waste jumped from 599 million pounds in 2020 to 709 million pounds last year B次元官网网址� an amount that can circle the planet more than 800 times in the form of air pillows, the group said.

For years, the advocacy organization has been pushing the company to release more data around its plastic footprint and commit to reducing any harmful environmental impacts that might stem from it. That idea was put up for a vote two times at AmazonB次元官网网址檚 annual shareholders meetings during the past two years. The last vote, held in May, got support from 48% of shareholders.

But the e-commerce behemoth had resisted calls to release more data until Tuesday, when it disclosed in a blog post that it used 97,222 metric tons (over 214 million pounds) of single-use plastic last year to ship orders to customers. Amazon also said it was able to reduce the average weight of plastic in a shipment by over 7% but it did not disclose if its overall plastic footprint grew between 2020 and 2021, when it was seeing a boom in sales due to the pandemic.

B次元官网网址淲hile we are making progress, weB次元官网网址檙e not satisfied,B次元官网网址� the company said in the blog post. B次元官网网址淲e have work to do to continue to reduce packaging, particularly plastic packaging thatB次元官网网址檚 harder to recycle, and we are undertaking a range of initiatives to do so.B次元官网网址�

Matt Littlejohn, OceanaB次元官网网址檚 senior vice president for strategic initiatives, said it was good that Amazon released some data, but the figures it released donB次元官网网址檛 tell the whole story.

The companyB次元官网网址檚 total data includes plastic used in shipments Amazon fulfills through its warehouses and other parts of its business, such as Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. But it leaves out whatB次元官网网址檚 used by third-party merchants who sell items on Amazon but donB次元官网网址檛 use the companyB次元官网网址檚 fulfillment services.

Saige Kolpack, an Amazon spokesperson, said the companyB次元官网网址檚 data reflect most of the plastic used to ship orders to customers because the B次元官网网址渟ignificant majorityB次元官网网址� of items shipped are fulfilled by Amazon. Kolpack declined to say how many of the nearly 2 million merchants who sell on Amazon use its fulfillment services.

The company has also said it offers incentives to get third-party sellers to ship items to customers in the manufacturerB次元官网网址檚 original packaging, instead of using additional packaging.

B次元官网网址擧aleluya Hadero, The Associated Press