New guidelines to reduce e-commerce packaging

25 March 2025

On 4 March 2025, the National Environment Agency (“NEA”) issued a press release announcing that the Alliance for Action on Packaging Waste Reduction for the E-commerce Sector (“AfA”) has published a set of Guidelines on Sustainable E-commerce Packaging. The guidelines were developed by members of the AfA, comprising 14 companies across the e-commerce supply chain (including marketplaces, retailers, and packaging producers), organisations, and experts. The AfA was co-led by the Singapore Manufacturing Federation (“SMF”) and Singapore Post and supported by NEA. 

The Guidelines provide a comprehensive list of concrete 3R (Reduce, Re-use, Recycle) solutions tailored to various types of e-commerce packaging, including cardboard boxes, mailers, and fillers. Each solution is augmented with step-by-step actions for businesses to consider and the expected benefits and drawbacks. The Guidelines also benchmark the solutions based on the estimated effort, cost, and environmental impact to allow companies to select the one that best suits their needs. 

Beyond 3R solutions, the Guidelines provide operating models for e-commerce marketplaces to promote sustainable packaging to consumers and drive awareness and responsibilities among suppliers. Another additional feature of the Guidelines is a scorecard that company leaders can use to assess the maturity of their management practices in relation to sustainable packaging and pinpoint areas for improvement. 

The Packaging Partnership Programme, administered by SMF, will be organising workshops to promote the adoption of the guidelines among businesses. 

Reference materials 

The press release is available on the NEA website www.nea.gov.sg.

The Guidelines on Sustainable E-commerce Packaging is available for download from the Packaging Partnership Programme website www.packaging-partnership.org.sg.