why I don’t order from Amazon

When was the last time you bought something from Amazon?

Given that the average American spends almost $100 per month on Amazon, it probably wasn’t that long ago.

I get it. It’s cheap, it’s convenient, and if you have Prime, you can supposedly get your purchase within 2 days. If you desperately need a new HDMI cable or a travel mug or even an office chair, Amazon seems like a godsend.

But as the saying goes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Amazon’s low prices and fast delivery speeds come with consequences.

In 2020, Amazon reported 61 million metric tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to more than 13 million cars. But there is also evidence that Amazon drastically underreports its carbon footprint, including only emissions from its own products and neglecting emissions associated with any third-party vendors that rely on Amazon for sales and shipping. In reality, that figure could be much higher.

It's difficult to say if this is worse than the emissions that would be produced by individual consumers driving to brick-and-mortar stores, but it’s also evident that Amazon is not taking sufficient action to improve their sustainability.

Following COVID, Amazon’s emissions increased by 18% from 2019 to 2020, and by 40% from 2019 to 2021.

Amazon has a goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2040, but it’s just that – a goal. There is no accountability if they fail to reach it and no reason to believe it’s actually achievable as their emissions continue to rise.

Amazon also has a plastic problem. In 2020 the company generated 599 million pounds of plastic packaging waste, a 29% increase since 2019. Plastic packaging is nearly impossible to recycle and a large amount of Amazon’s waste ends up in the ocean.

Although they have an initiative to reduce plastic packaging and shift toward a more sustainable option, Amazon still produces an obscene amount of plastic waste and Prime encourages consumers to buy individual items as often as they want, exacerbating the problem.

And if products aren’t purchased, they’re often destroyed. A 2021 investigation in the UK found that millions of pounds of Amazon’s unsold goods are sent directly to landfills.

This practice isn’t uncommon – many companies throw away unsold products to preserve their profit margins – but the sheer amount of waste produced by Amazon is staggering. Up to 130,000 items per week were marked as “destroy” in just one warehouse.

From an environmental perspective, it’s clear that Amazon is missing the mark. But as if that wasn’t enough, they have a long history of worker exploitation and mistreatment.

Multiple times, Amazon has received penalties from OSHA citing unsafe working conditions. Workers are required to work long hours and lift heavy items, increasing the risk of ergonomic and musculoskeletal disorders.

When employees complained about harsh working conditions, Amazon initially offered a worthless wellness initiative called “AmaZen” while simultaneously shortchanging employees on their paychecks.

And in spite of all of this, or more aptly because of all this, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a dizzying net worth of $150 billion.

I’m well aware that Amazon is not the only company that operates this way. Many corporations wreak environmental havoc, exploit their employees, and deposit outlandish amounts of money in the pockets of their CEOs, and I do my best to avoid them as well.

But the way Amazon operates feels particularly insidious to me. There’s something unsettling about the way it takes only minutes to purchase something, that our expectations for fast delivery have been completely altered, that everyone goes “I know I shouldn’t buy from Amazon but it’s just so convenient.”

Partly because it’s so convenient, because it has the potential to make my life easier, I feel like it’s especially important to avoid Amazon. I don’t want the allure of convenience to distract me from the consequences of their actions.

To be fair, it’s almost impossible to cut out Amazon completely. It’s reach as a company has extended to Whole Foods, Audible, Twitch, Ring doorbells, and even IMDb. But I still try not interact with Amazon subsidiaries as much as possible.

I’m not saying everyone else has to follow suit, but I do encourage you to question how much you really need and how quickly you need it. Can you buy that same product elsewhere? Can you go without it? Can you shop on Amazon less often?

The last time I bought something on Amazon was over a year ago. I can confidently say I don’t miss it.