Estimates are that Amazon delivers around 23 million packages every day worldwide. The United States Postal Service’s postmaster general says mail carriers delivered around 1.7 billion packages for Amazon in 2025. It’s a lot.
Some of those shipments are in cardboard boxes or the manufacturer’s original packaging, which can be easy to recycle. Many more are padded mailers. Those are not as easy to recycle. They’re paper outside, but sometimes plastic bubble wrap inside. How do you handle them?
You don’t want to add to the waste stream, so you’re trying to recycle them. Do they go into cardboard recycling or plastic? Do you have to separate them yourself? Which bin do you choose?
When you fail to recycle them properly, you risk clogging sorting machines at your local recycling facility. Tossing them into the trash isn’t always the right answer either. Our guide shows how to categorize, sort, and dispose of padded mailers correctly.
Padded Mailer Recycling: Mixed vs. Single Materials
To properly dispose of any shipping envelope, you need to know how your local recycling facility sorts and handles materials. Many Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) use optical sorters, fans, and screens alongside the human workforce.
Plastics, paper, cardboard, metal, and glass go onto conveyors where automation and humans work together to separate the different materials. They are put into shipping containers or loaded onto pallets to go to facilities that break them down and process them for reuse.
Materials must be properly sorted to prevent waste in the recycling stream. When there’s contamination, entire loads can end up in landfills, which is not helpful.
Padded mailers are often a single material like plastic film or cardboard/paper. Sometimes, however, the mailer is a composite or mixed material with paper on the outside and bubble wrap glued to the inside. How you recycle these mailers depends on the materials within the mailer.
A Guide to Amazon Padded Mailers
The type of padded mailer you receive from Amazon depends on the marketplace seller or if it’s from an Amazon warehouse. There are several types you might receive, and it does change from one shipment to the next.
All-Plastic Bubble Mailer
These plastic mailers are light, flexible, and have a bubble wrap lining inside. Beyond the shipping label, there is no paper or shredded paper in the padding. The exterior might be LDPE #4 or Tyvek (HDPE #2).
Bring them to your local big-box retailer or grocery store and recycle them in plastic film recycling bins. Those bins are often in bottle return areas or the entryway. You cannot recycle them in your curbside bins.
Paper-Plastic Hybrid Mailers
Hybrid padded mailers are one of the most challenging to recycle. It’s a paper exterior with bubble wrap glued to the inside of the envelope.
You can try to separate the layers, but it depends on how sticky the glue is. If you can separate the layers, recycle the paper in your curbside bin and bring the bubble wrap to a plastic film recycling bin. If you cannot separate them, put them in the trash.
Recyclable Paper Padded Mailers
These paper mailers are usually white or brown and have padding that’s made from shredded paper or a corrugated, waffle-like firmer paper interior. The exterior is kraft paper, and it withstands some force before it rips.
A Guide to USPS Padded Mailers
While sellers can use their own packaging, the USPS also sells mailing supplies both in their locations and online. The materials within the packaging depend on the mail service chosen.
Cardboard and Flat Paper Mailers
Overnight, priority, and ground service mailers may not have any padding at all. They’re thin cardboard mailers that are easily recycled in your curbside bin.
Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelopes
The Priority Mail padded mailers are a flexible plastic with the USPS Priority Mail branding. They’re made of LDPE #4 both inside and out.
As they’re a flexible plastic, bring them with you when grocery shopping. You can leave them in the film plastic recycling bins many larger retailers and grocery stores have in their lobbies. You cannot recycle them in your curbside bin.
Ready Post® Kraft Padded Mailers
These golden-brown kraft paper envelopes are lined with bubble wrap. They’re like the paper-plastic hybrid envelopes Amazon uses.
You need to separate the layers, if possible. Recycle the paper with your paper and cardboard, and recycle the plastic bubble wrap in a plastic film bin at a local store. If you cannot separate them, throw them in the trash.
Best Practices for Consumers: Use the Three-Step Action Plan
Consumers can follow three simple tests to determine how to recycle padded mailers.
- Reuse: Before even recycling, determine if you can reuse it. If you send gifts to family members throughout the year, save your mailer. Reusing them keeps them out of landfills and ensures the mailer is used to the fullest before recycling or trashing them.
- Rip Test: If you’re not sure there’s a plastic interior, try to tear the mailer. If you can’t, it could contain plastic film or Tyvek.
- Prepare Plastic Film: Plastic film mailers need to have the paper shipping label removed when possible. The easiest way to do this is to use a box cutter to cut around the mailing label and remove it.
I like to save plastic mailers and other plastic film wrap in a clear trash bag and bring it to the store once a month. It’s easier to bring a larger bag full of mailers, bread bags, produce bags, air pillows, and bubble wrap.
Best Practices for Businesses Guide
Corporate mailrooms, e-commerce sellers, and small business owners need to balance package recycling with efficiency. Plus, the massive amount of mailers you’re handling can overwhelm local recycling facilities.
At the same time, the items you mail throughout the week add to the recycling or waste stream in their destination cities. You also have to consider the environment when purchasing mailers and packaging. Follow these tips to lessen the impact on consumers and waste districts.
Affix How-To Recycle Labels
Make things easier for consumers receiving your packages. Put a sticker in a visible place on the mailer with tips on how to recycle it.
If the mailer is fully paper, note that the packaging can go into a curbside recycling bin. If it’s all soft plastic, note that it’s easy to recycle it at grocery stores with plastic film recycling containers in the lobby.
Consolidate Soft Plastics
If your shipments come in soft plastic mailers, set them aside. You may not be able to receive them in your weekly trash and recycling pick-up services, but you can bring them to a facility that accepts that type of plastic.
Consider reusing soft plastic mailers as much as possible. You can use tape to seal them. You could also use them to package fragile items before putting them into a larger box.
Optimize Packaging to the Items
If you’re packaging items to send to consumers, use the appropriate size package. One of the biggest pet peeves consumers have is getting a box that’s 10 times the size of the item. It’s wasteful.
As an example, I ordered a ceiling fan for my screened deck. It came in a 16-inch x 8-inch x 12-inch box. The lighting company placed that box into a 24-inch x 12-inch x 20-inch box and filled it with yards of bubble wrap. The ceiling fan itself was well packaged in styrofoam and didn’t need the additional plastic and cardboard.
Switch to Curbside-Recyclable Packaging
When you ship items out, use recyclable packaging that is easy to recycle. Assorted box sizes eliminate the need for padded mailers. Cardboard mailers with shredded paper padding instead of plastic bubble wrap are easier to recycle.
Teach Staff How to Separate Correctly
Recycling in a larger company only works effectively if everyone does things correctly. Have posters above disposal stations that give simple, clear instructions. Make sure staff know that they need to take the time to determine if a padded mailer is filled with plastic or paper.
RecycleNation’s Guide Helps Determine the Best Place to Go
Use the online search tool at RecycleNation to determine where to bring your plastic padded mailers. Type “plastic film” and your ZIP code to find the nearest drop-off location.
