Half of Amazon’s North American warehouses shipped no plastic packaging in 2025. A buyer’s guide to the five swaps, what each one costs, and where paper is the wrong answer.

A typical e-commerce parcel contains five pieces of plastic. The outer mailer, the bubble film inside it, the polybag around the garment, the void fill, and the tape holding it together. Every one of them now has a paper equivalent that is in volume production and sold by the pallet.

The regulatory clock has made this a procurement question rather than a branding one. Europe’s packaging regulation has applied since August 2026, and seven US states have passed producer responsibility laws that price packaging by what it is made of.

That does not mean every one of the five should be swapped. Paper wins some of these five outright, loses one badly, and in the others the answer depends on what is being shipped and how far. Here is the swap-by-swap picture, including the places where the paper version is the wrong call.

The volume buyers have already moved

The clearest evidence is Amazon’s own reporting. The share of its outbound shipments containing single-use plastic delivery packaging fell from 65 percent in 2023 to 37 percent in 2024 and 27 percent in 2025. By 2025, 52 percent of its North American fulfilment centres shipped no plastic delivery packaging at all. In October 2024 it removed inflated plastic pillows from packages worldwide and replaced them with crumpled recycled paper. Across its European network it stopped using single-use plastic delivery bags in 2022.

One number in that disclosure is worth reading carefully, because it is the one most commentary gets wrong. Amazon’s 2025 packaging mix was 51 percent flexible packaging, 38 percent corrugated boxes and 11 percent shipped in the product’s own packaging. The company did not move from bags to boxes. It moved from plastic bags to paper ones, and flexible formats still carry more than half its volume.

The market forecasts point the same way. Analysts at Future Market Insights put the overall mailers market on a 4 percent compound annual growth rate to 2036, while paper-based apparel mailers grow at 12.1 percent over the same period, from 807 million dollars in 2026 to 2.5 billion in 2036. Paper-based honeycomb transit packaging is forecast at 8 percent a year. The paper formats are growing at roughly three times the rate of the category that contains them.

The disposal side explains why. Plastic bags and film recycle at around 5 percent, down from 9 percent in 2018, and for the LDPE and LLDPE resins used in standard poly mailers the figure is about 2 percent. A poly mailer is cheap and light and almost never becomes anything else.

1. The poly mailer becomes a rigid kraft mailer or a padded paper envelope

The lightweight LDPE mailer is the default outer layer for most small parcels. Two paper formats replace it, and which one depends on whether the contents need to stay flat or need cushioning.

For flat goods, prints, photographs, documents, vinyl records, calendars and books, the replacement is the rigid kraft mailer. Stiff paperboard, typically 350 to 550 gsm depending on the size, with a self-seal strip and a perforated tear opening. It does something the poly mailer never did: it stops the contents bending in a sorting machine.

For everything else, the replacement is the honeycomb padded envelope, covered below.

Where this swap fails: anything that must stay dry in an uncovered vehicle, and anything liquid. Paperboard handles a damp morning. It does not handle a monsoon.

2. The bubble mailer becomes a honeycomb padded envelope

This is the swap most brands make first, and it is the one with the clearest logic. A honeycomb envelope is two layers of kraft paper with an expanded hexagonal paper layer between them. The cells absorb shock in the same way bubble film does. Because the whole envelope is one material, the customer puts it in paper recycling without separating anything.

Stock sizes commonly run from around 15 by 21 cm for cosmetics and accessories up to 35 by 45 cm for folded apparel, usually with a self-seal flap. They are lighter than a carton of the same protective capacity and they store flat, which matters when a packing station is short of shelf space.

Where this swap fails: heavy items with hard corners. Honeycomb cushions impact well and resists puncture poorly.

3. Bubble wrap becomes expandable honeycomb paper

Die-cut kraft that expands into a honeycomb mesh when it is pulled. Wrapped around a product, the cells interlock and hold without tape, which removes a step at the packing bench. Crumpled into a carton, it does the job of air pillows.

The operational argument is usually stronger than the environmental one. Pre-inflated bubble is mostly air in a warehouse. Honeycomb paper ships flat and expands at the bench. Dispenser cartons often ship with a lighter smooth lining paper, around 17 gsm, to sit against delicate surfaces before the 80 gsm honeycomb goes on.

Where this swap fails: rarely on performance. The constraint is cost per cubic metre of protection.

4. The polybag becomes a glassine envelope

The clear PE bag around a t-shirt is the piece of plastic customers complain about most, and it has the cleanest one-to-one replacement. Glassine is paper processed until it is smooth and semi-translucent. It resists grease and dust without any coating, and the product shows through it.

It is genuinely a like-for-like swap for inner packaging: same job, same protection against dust and handling inside the carton, one recyclable material instead of two.

Where this swap fails: glassine is inner packaging. It is not a transit layer on its own.

5. The plastic bottle sleeve becomes a honeycomb paper sleeve

An expandable kraft sleeve, typically with 1 cm hexagonal cells, slides over a bottle, jar or candle and grips it. Stock lengths around 11, 22, 35 and 45 cm cover most glassware. Like the wrap, it ships flat and expands only when used, so a single carton of sleeves protects as many bottles as several cartons of moulded pulp inserts.

The trap: paper on the outside is not paper all the way through

This is the part buyers get wrong, and it is worth more than any of the five swaps above.

Products sold as paper mailers are not always paper throughout. The clearest case is the “kraft bubble mailer”: a kraft paper exterior with a polyethylene bubble film laminated inside. It looks like the paper option on a product photograph and it behaves like a mixed-material pack in a recycling stream, which usually means it is not recycled at all.

“A kraft bubble mailer is a plastic mailer wearing a paper coat,” says Barak Ekshtein, founder of Bk-bags, a Ho Chi Minh City based supplier of paper and poly e-commerce packaging. “The bubble film inside is polyethylene. If you want one material going into the recycling bin, you have to ask what every layer is made of, not what the outside looks like.”

The same problem appears in three other places. PE-lined kraft mailers, sold for moisture resistance. Plastic address windows on otherwise paper envelopes. And the tape: a paper mailer closed with polypropylene tape is a mixed-material pack.

The check takes one email. Ask for the material of every layer by name, and the weight of each. A supplier who can only describe the product as “eco-friendly paper mailer” has told you nothing you can put in a compliance file.

Verifying the paper itself

Once the layers are confirmed, the second question is what the paper is. Two claims do less work than buyers assume.

FSC is the most common certification on packaging paper, and it is meaningful, but only when read correctly. The logo has to appear with a licence code, and the code is what lets a buyer check the certificate holder. More importantly, “FSC Mix” without a stated percentage can be supplied under a credit system in which no individual unit is required to contain a set proportion of certified fibre. And FSC Recycled paper carries no post-consumer minimum, so a recycled-labelled paper mailer can be made entirely of factory converting waste. Neither of those is fraud. Both are routinely misread as something stronger than they are, and a buyer with a specific recycled-content target needs to say so in the purchase order. There is a fuller breakdown in how to check an FSC claim.

The other question, for anyone shipping food or food-contact goods, is PFAS. Grease-resistant papers have historically been a route for these substances into packaging, and EU limits for food-contact packaging came into force in August 2026. Ask for a PFAS declaration in writing.

The honest downside

Paper protects differently from plastic, and the difference shows up on the invoice.

“Paper protects by structure, plastic protects by film,” says Ekshtein, whose company Bk-bags produces both paper and poly mailers in Vietnam and China. “So a paper mailer is usually heavier for the same protection. On a light parcel that can move you into the next postage band, and the buyers who skip that calculation find out on the first invoice.”

Three costs to model before committing:

1. 1. Weight. Run the actual gram difference against your carrier’s rate bands, not against a percentage.
   2. Water. Paper mailers are not waterproof. For open-vehicle delivery in wet climates, this is decisive.
   3. Puncture. Sharp or hard-cornered goods need either a box or a cushioning layer that paper alone does not provide.

One factor runs the other way. Paper formats store flat, and warehouse shelf space is a real constraint that rarely appears in a packaging comparison.

“We sell poly mailers too, and sometimes I tell a client to keep them,” Ekshtein says. “If the product is liquid, or the parcel crosses a monsoon in an open truck, paper is the wrong answer. Plastic-free is a goal, not a rule you apply to every SKU.”

Quick comparison

Plastic item	Paper replacement	Protects against	Weight vs plastic	Best for
Poly mailer (flat goods)	Rigid kraft mailer	Bending, tearing	Heavier	Prints, documents, records, books
Bubble mailer	Honeycomb padded envelope	Impact	Similar to slightly heavier	Cosmetics, apparel, books, small electronics
Bubble wrap, air pillows	Expandable honeycomb paper	Impact, movement in box	Heavier	Warehouse packing benches
Polybag	Glassine envelope	Dust, grease, handling	Similar	Apparel, prints, stationery (inner layer)
Plastic bottle sleeve	Honeycomb bottle sleeve	Impact, bottle-to-bottle contact	Similar	Wine, spirits, candles, cosmetics

The rules behind the shift

Two regulatory pressures are pushing this, and neither is a plastic ban.

In the EU, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation has applied since 12 August 2026. Its operative requirements for e-commerce arrive on 1 January 2030: a minimum recyclability grade of C, meaning at least 70 percent of the pack recyclable by weight, and a cap of 50 percent on empty space in e-commerce, grouped and transport packaging. Mono-material paper is straightforward to grade. A multi-layer pack with a window and a plastic tape is where the work is.

In the United States, seven states have passed extended producer responsibility laws for packaging, under which producers pay fees set by what their packaging is made of and how recyclable it is. Two are charging so far: Oregon since July 2025 and Colorado since January 2026. California’s regulations took effect in May 2026. Those fees are the mechanism that turns material choice into a line item.

Neither framework requires paper. Both make it cheaper to explain.

Frequently asked questions

Are paper mailers waterproof?

No. Kraft paper mailers resist light moisture and handling, but they are not a barrier against sustained rain or liquid contents. For open-vehicle delivery in wet conditions, a poly or co-extruded mailer remains the practical choice.

Are honeycomb padded envelopes recyclable at home?

An all-paper honeycomb envelope goes into the household paper stream in most municipalities, with no liner to separate. Collection rules vary by local authority, so confirm for the markets you ship to before printing a recycling claim on the pack.

Is glassine plastic?

No. Glassine is paper made smooth and semi-translucent by supercalendering, not by a plastic coating. Its grease and dust resistance comes from the process rather than from an added layer.

Do paper mailers cost more to ship?

Usually slightly more per parcel, because paper is heavier for the same protection. Whether that matters depends entirely on where your parcels sit relative to your carrier’s weight bands.

What does “FSC Mix” mean on a mailer?

That the paper comes from a mix of certified, recycled and controlled sources. Without a stated percentage it does not guarantee a specific proportion of certified fibre in that individual item, because of how the credit system works. Ask for the percentage in writing if the number matters to you.

What to do first

Pick the single highest-volume SKU in the fulfilment centre and swap one layer, not five. The polybag is usually the easiest first move, because glassine is a genuine like-for-like replacement and the change is invisible to the carrier. Measure the weight difference and the damage rate for a month before touching the outer mailer.

Ask one supplier to quote the same specification in both materials. Suppliers of e-commerce packaging carrying paper and poly ranges can put the weight and cost difference on a single sheet, which removes a second tender from the process. A format-by-format breakdown is.

The test for any supplier is the same one that sorts this whole category: ask what every layer is made of, and see whether the answer arrives as a specification or as an adjective.

Barak Ekshtein is the founder of Bk-bags, a supplier of reusable shopping bags and e-commerce packaging based in Ho Chi Minh City, producing in Vietnam and China since 2006. He was named a Top Innovator by the World Economic Forum, contributes to the WEF Agenda, and is a UNESCO Green Citizen.