Up to 70,200 Tons of Cardboard Waste Could Be Generated by the 2026 Amazon Prime Day

As one of Amazon’s largest global sales events, Prime Day is expected to see over 350 million items sold and approximately 280.8 million boxes shipped this year. Although the company is making significant efforts to replace plastic packaging with paper and minimize waste, industry estimates by BusinessWaste.co.uk suggest that due to the sheer scale of the event, the amount of cardboard used could reach up to 70,200 tons. Based on the latest available data, our analysis presents a glimpse into the global e-commerce packaging footprint.

Prime Day Volume and Growth Prospects

Amazon Prime Day is a global shipping and shopping event that provides exclusive deals for Amazon Prime members. According to the official schedule, the 2026 event will run from midnight on June 23 until 11:59 PM on June 26. The volume of the event has shown continuous and drastic growth in recent years. Records indicate that last year’s Prime Day closed with 300 million items purchased.

Relying on publicly available data from Statista, BusinessWaste.co.uk prepared an analysis clarifying that these calculations should be treated strictly as estimates. Based on the 200 million product sales increase registered between 2018 and 2025, experts applied a 17 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for their calculations. Based on this, they project around 351 million items sold for 2026. The analysis also points out the interesting fact that the duration of the event does not show a strong correlation with total sales: the system recorded 300 million items sold during both the two-day event in 2024 and the four-day event in 2025.

70,200 Tons of Cardboard in the Balance

Regarding the volume of packaging materials used, previous Amazon announcements reveal that the company used an average of 20 percent fewer boxes in 2024. This reduction was primarily made possible by the “Amazon Day” delivery option, which allows customers to choose a specific day of the week to receive their eligible items together. BusinessWaste.co.uk incorporated this 20 percent reduction into its calculations, leading to the conclusion that approximately 280.8 million boxes could be shipped during the 2026 Amazon Prime Day.

Since the e-commerce platform uses three different sizes of boxes, determining the exact amount of cardboard waste generated is an extremely difficult task. However, industry analysts determined the average weight of an empty medium box to be 250 grams, and based on this, established a “medium estimate.” As a result, the gigantic discount event is expected to entail the use of 70,200 tons of cardboard during shipping.

Expert Opinions: Sustainability Efforts and the Dilemma of Overconsumption

Mark Hall, a cardboard waste expert at BusinessWaste.co.uk, highlighted in relation to the published figures that Amazon regularly communicates its efforts to reduce packaging waste. He called it a distinctly positive development that the retail giant overwhelmingly uses cardboard and paper, which is a significantly more sustainable alternative to plastic.

At the same time, the expert shed light on the contradictions of the situation:

“It is hard to ignore the massive scale of cardboard waste that the e-commerce site produces, and as a result, we ask consumers to be mindful of this.”

Hall points out that, realistically, a sales event of this nature heavily encourages overconsumption. Therefore, it is important for shoppers to consider whether they truly need the items placed in their carts before every single transaction. If shoppers do take advantage of the discounts, it is essential that consumers sustainably dispose of the accumulating packaging materials in the appropriate recycling bins.

Innovations, Recycling, and Future Packaging Trends

Alongside the large-scale cardboard usage resulting from the sheer sales volume, it is also worth examining the positive changes in the industry. Reports show that over 50 percent of Amazon’s European shipments now arrive to customers in recyclable packaging—such as paper or cardboard—or completely without additional packaging. The company also disclosed that since the baseline year of 2015, it has avoided the use of over 4 million tons of packaging material.

A forward-looking development of industry-wide significance is that Amazon, together with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Roorkee), is working on developing a recyclable packaging material that is compostable under home conditions and made entirely from agricultural crop residues. If the ongoing lab-scale development and testing phases are successful, the company officially plans to support industrial trials, process validation, and the launch of commercial production for the technology between mid and late 2027.

Furthermore, the role and perception of physical packaging are undergoing a major transformation in retail. Mondi’s annual e-commerce trend report emphasizes that the quality of packaging increasingly influences consumers’ willingness to make repeat purchases. The report also notes that continuously evolving digital consumer behavior places entirely new demands on physical packaging, while artificial intelligence (AI) tools are also drastically reshaping consumers’ purchasing and decision-making processes.

Reference to the original source used: Amazon Prime Day event could generate 70,200 tons of cardboard waste – Packaging Europe (June 19, 2026)