Amazon has joined forces with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee to create eco-friendly mailing bags made from crop residues.
The mailers, which are both recyclable and home-compostable, are designed to lower plastic use, reduce carbon emissions, and provide farmers with a new source of income from agricultural side streams.
India generates an estimated 500 million tonnes of agricultural waste annually. Initiatives are underway to convert this waste into packaging as a strategy to reduce reliance on plastic bags, traditional virgin paper materials, and imported virgin wood pulp.
This approach is also expected to mitigate the carbon-intensive practice of stubble burning – the incineration of leftover straw and crop residue after harvesting – and provide an additional income stream for farmers.
IIT Roorkee’s Department of Paper and Packaging Technology is spearheading this development, directing waste materials such as wheat straw and bagasse to its Innovations in Paper and Packaging lab (INNOPAP) to create the new packaging.
Waste not, want not
The process begins with agricultural waste being broken down into pulp in an autoclave digester. This pulp is then washed and screened to eliminate impurities before being pressed and dried to produce paper.
Sustainable packaging solutions are becoming increasingly in demand around the world, in everything from mailing bags to food packaging.
Here in the UK, leading packaging manufacturer Polybags offers consumers a wide range of eco-friendly mailing bags, including an extensive selection of 100% compostable mailing bags that can be disposed of with food waste.
They also stock a range of food packaging derived purely from agricultural waste – their bagasse catering supplies are made from the by-product of sugar cane processing and are fully compostable.
Eye on developments
Packaging manufacturers and retailers alike will be keeping an eye on developments in India, with IIT Roorkee and Amazon set for lab-scale development and testing of their new sustainable mailing bags for the next 15 months.
If these initial phases are successful, Amazon intends to move forward with industrial trials, process validation, and commercial production scheduled for mid-to-late 2027.
Professor Kamal Kishore Pant, director of IIT Roorkee, said: “Sustainability is no longer a choice, it is an urgent national priority. This collaboration between IIT Roorkee and Amazon is a step towards realizing India’s vision of a circular economy, aligned with government missions.
“By transforming agricultural residues into biodegradable packaging materials, we are addressing the twin challenges of stubble burning and a reliance on virgin materials in India, while creating scalable solutions that can benefit industries, farmers, and society at large.
“This initiative showcases how academic research and industry partnerships can accelerate India’s journey towards a more sustainable, and self-reliant future.”
Image courtesy of Amazon News.
