End is in sight for over-sized Amazon boxes using up half of space in delivery vans

The largest supplier of boxes to Amazon plans to end the problem of over-sized packaging.

Euston-based DS Smith is developing a machine to create bespoke parcels to cut “fresh air” being driven wastefully around London in internet shopping vans due to inefficient packaging.

The firm, which is Britain’s biggest cardboard packaging-maker, says up to 50 per cent of space in delivery vans is wasted by items being sent out in boxes which are too large.

While Amazon has large numbers of box shapes at its delivery depots, there are not enough types to snugly fit the millions of items it sells, said Alex Manisty, DS Smith’s head of group strategy. He said new machines will build boxes to the right size as orders come in.

A hammer will be sent out in a T-shaped box or a broom handle in a long, thin parcel.

Customers often post social media photos complaining that small items such as batteries and nail polish have arrived in jumbo-sized parcels packed out with plastic cushions and paper.

Writer Emily-Jane Clark had a £7 spider-catching gun arrive in a box “the size of a wardrobe”, while another customer, Jade Nightscales, found her microphone pole came in a box big enough for her to fit inside. One buyer reported a single bag of dog food “protected” by more than 150 air-filled pouches.

Mr Manisty said: “The most visible consequences of convenience people see at home is the amount of empty space in e-commerce packaging.

“The supply chain is basically about filling space in containers and lorries. Logistics are paid for by volume, not by weight, so the size of the pack determines how much it costs to send something. The average void for somebody like Amazon would be over 50 per cent, so they’re shipping 50 per cent air and the cost of sending all this fresh air around is in the billions.

“The nightmare scenario is our streets just fill up with white vans so we’re developing a machine that sits in Amazon’s distribution centres and builds bespoke boxes as orders come in to exactly the right size for each order.”

Theoretically every box can be recycled 25 times, with each one including 20 per cent “virgin paper” in the mix.

Last month the Standard was shown how London’s second-biggest recycling centre deals with the tonnes of parcel cardboard and single-use plastic packaging, much of it from web shopping.

In the future, drone deliveries could also help reduce damage to goods, Mr Manisty said, as there are fewer clumsy humans in the supply chain to throw parcels around.

An Amazon spokeswoman said: “Over the past 10 years, Amazon’s packaging initiatives have eliminated more than 244,000 tons of packaging materials, avoiding 500 million shipping boxes.

“Frustration-free packaging ends customer ‘wrap rage’ by removing plastic bindings, wire ties, and clamshell cas­ings – making boxes simple to open.”