The Top Line:

We order from Amazon a lot, and we started using them a long time ago.. back when they only sold books. When the expanded into other products, they encountered growth issues. Among them was the challenge of packaging. Remember when you would get lip balm in a box fit for a TV? Luckily, that is happening less, but there is still room for improvement. We would love it if Amazon could help us in our package-free goals.

The Breakdown:

• Call: Using the customer service number, at 888.280.4331, we were connected to a robo-answering service that connected us to a real operator. After letting the operator know what we were trying to accomplish, we were put on hold for about 6 minutes. Customer service representative said that my feedback was locked in to the packaging team (uh oh…) but that my account will see reduced packaging on my upcoming shipments (yay!). Total call time 9min 22sec.
  After my call, I got an email stating that my purchases will not go through a bespoke adjustment to go toward zero-waste packaging but my feedback was forwarded along to the right team.

  They did also include a nifty guide that helps assess what to do with Amazon packaging when it arrives. It’s a start.

• Email: We emailed the customer service cs-reply@amazon.com and let them know we would like the minimum amount of packaging in our orders. Turns out that this email address does not work. Ooops. Will report back — please standby.

• Live Chat: We sent a live chat. Amazon didn’t see us coming, but they, too, assured us that we would see a reduction in packaging going forward. Based on the email reply to our phone call, it does not look like it will be immediate but hopefully people are taking notice.

We're on a mission to reduce our personal carbon footprint with small, hopefully easy, changes in our home to fight against climate change. This means we're looking for products that may be all natural, ideally zero waste, reusable or compostable -- while still being affordable!