Amazon, IIT Roorkee Partner to Develop Packaging from Agricultural Waste

The research will focus on converting crop residues such as wheat straw and bagasse into high-quality pulp for paper mailers with performance comparable to traditional paper packaging. This helps reduce stubble burning in India by converting agricultural waste into valuable packaging material. It also reduces dependence on imported unprocessed wood pulp and can create additional income for farmers by providing a market for agricultural residues.

The collaboration with IIT Roorkee’s Department of Paper and Packaging Technology will begin with laboratory-scale development and testing over a period of 15 months. Subject to successful performance testing, Amazon will provide support for industrial trials, process validation, and progress toward commercial production by mid-to-late next year.

Abhinav Singh, Vice President of Operations, Amazon India, said: “At Amazon, we are building and managing India’s fastest, safest and most reliable operations network and are committed to making it more sustainable. As part of this effort, we are partnering with IIT Roorkee to develop innovative packaging from crop residues. India produces around 500 million tonnes of this waste annually, and by repurposing it in packaging, we can support a more circular economy while reducing dependence on traditional materials.”

IIT Roorkee Director Prof. Kamal Kishore Pant said, “Sustainability is no longer a choice but an urgent national priority. This collaboration between IIT Roorkee and Amazon is a step towards realizing India’s circular economy vision in line with government missions such as Swachh Bharat, Startup India and National Resource Efficiency Policy. By converting agricultural residues into biodegradable packaging materials, stubble burning and reliance on virgin materials in India, scalable solutions that can also benefit industries, farmers and society at large.” “This initiative demonstrates how academic research and industry partnerships can accelerate India’s journey towards a more sustainable and self-reliant future.”

Prof. from INNOPAP Laboratory (Innovations in Paper and Packaging) in the Department of Paper and Packaging Technology, IIT Roorkee, Saharanpur Campus. Vibhore Kumar Rastogi and Dr. Anurag Kulshreshtha will lead this research project.

As part of its ongoing efforts to reduce packaging, Amazon ships more than 50% of all customer orders in India in its original packaging or reduced packaging. The company ships customer orders with product packaging to more than 300 cities nationwide. Amazon India has eliminated 100% of single-use plastic from its packaging at its fulfillment centers since 2019.

Amazon India is committed to strengthening our operations in a more sustainable manner. The Climate Commitment is Amazon’s goal of achieving net zero carbon across our operations by 2040. We worked quickly and made impactful progress in a short time, including investments in carbon-free energy, packaging innovations, electrification of our transportation network, circularity improvements and artificial intelligence. Amazon has set a goal of returning excess water it uses directly from its operations to communities in India by 2027.