Between 2020 and 2025, Microsoft reduced 99% of the single-use plastics—from 7.3% to 0.07%— in its primary product packaging, a reduction of more than 5,000 metric tonnes, roughly equivalent to the plastic used in about a half billion typical single-use plastic water bottles.* It took five years and a rethink of packaging across the entire product portfolio.
Plastic pollution will not be solved by any single company, regulation, or breakthrough material, but the Ellen MacArthur Foundation's 2030 Plastics Agenda for Business is clear that alongside collective advocacy and collaborative action, leading businesses should take individual action in the areas they control. All three types of action are mutually reinforcing. Microsoft's work is a demonstration of what individual action can look like in practice.
Addressing plastic pollution includes eliminating the plastics we don't need, innovating to make the plastics we do need reusable, recyclable, or compostable, and circulating all plastic items to keep them in the economy and out of the environment.
Five years of redesign
In 2020, single-use plastics made up 7.3% by weight of Microsoft's primary product packaging (the packaging used for the final customer at the point of purchase), across more than 1,000 unique components**. The scale of the challenge was significant. Plastic packaging was embedded across retail, commercial, repairrepairOperation by which a faulty or broken product or component is returned back to a usable state to fulfil its intended use., exchange, and e-commerce channels. Regardless, Microsoft set about redesigning packaging across its entire portfolio because it saw the opportunity to reduce unnecessary single-use plastic. New product launches were developed with circular economycircular economyA systems solution framework that tackles global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, waste, and pollution. It is based on three principles, driven by design: eliminate waste and pollution, circulate products and materials (at their highest value), and regenerate nature. performance in mind from the outset, while hundreds of legacy products still in active production were converted as well.
The new packaging materials are primarily fibre-based — designed to work with established collection and recycling infrastructure — with around 63%, on average, of fibre-based materials in 2025 sourced from recycled content, and remaining virgin fibre sourced from FSC-certified suppliers.
Scaling recycled content without compromising strength, durabilitydurabilityThe ability of a product, component or material to remain functional and relevant when used as intended., and cushioning was one of the central engineering challenges. In one instance, Microsoft developed a corrugated paper cushion to replace the foam previously used to protect the Surface Studio 2+, a product weighing over 9.5 kg. In others, the transition created opportunities to reduce overall packaging size and weight: the Xbox wireless controller package was redesigned with a 20% reduction in both.
Cost neutrality has been a central consideration throughout. By factoring in manufacturing, assembly, and supply chain optimisation, Microsoft has been able to balance the investment in fibre-based materials.
Circular economy performance is now measured throughout the design process, with metrics such as plastic content, recycled content, overall material weight, and recyclabilityrecyclabilityThe ease with which a material can be recycled in practice and at scale. at end of life evaluated alongside cost, carbon emissions, and customer experience.
What remains unsolved
Not every problem has been solved. The plastic film overwrap used for Xbox video games remains an outstanding challenge: an industry-standard application that prevents product loss and enables retail verification of new physical games, with no straightforward fibre-based equivalent yet available. Rather than treating this as a dead end, Microsoft is working internally on a solution while actively sharingsharingThe use of a product by multiple users. It is a practice that retains the highest value of a product by extending its use period. its learnings with gaming industry peers facing the same issue.
There is also a broader question around substituting materials. Fibre-based materials are not a universal solution. They can carry a higher carbon and water footprint than the plastics they replace, and their circular credentials depend on how they are sourced, produced, whether they are actually recycled at end of life, and whether the overall system uses less material in the first place. Microsoft is working to offset this through lightweighting and right-sizing, though the net greenhouse gas and water impact of the transition has not yet been measured across the full portfolio. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation's own analysis is clear on this point: paper substitution is one lever among many, not a silver bullet. For more on the role and critical criteria for paper-based alternatives in a circular economy, read our recent report.
Expanding individual action
No single business will solve plastic pollution alone. But thousands of businesses acting in the areas they control — making different packaging decisions, sharing what they learn, moving without waiting for regulation — can together drive change at a scale no single intervention could achieve. Microsoft's five-year transformation is one example of what that could look like. The question for every business is what their own version could be.
This case study has been developed in consultation with Microsoft, a Partner of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
* Bottle equivalency is an estimate based on typical single-use PET water bottle weights (approximately 9–12 grams per bottle); actual bottle weights vary. Comparison reflects plastic weight only and does not account for lifecycle environmental impacts.
** *For primary product packaging, single-use plastics metrics cover all Microsoft hardware packaging (retail and commercial) and consumer software packaging, and excludes impact from inks, adhesives, coatings, label liner material that is removed before a label is applied, and electrostatic discharge (ESD) packaging components. Primary product packaging is designed to form the final sales or retail unit intended for the final customer at the point of purchase. Learn more: 2025 Environmental Sustainability Report | Microsoft
