Online giant Amazon has launched a new eco-friendly option for shoppers to replace plastic with paper in their orders.

It comes amid growing concerns around the world about the rise in plastic waste and the effect on the environment by consumers.

How do I change my order preferences?

A customer service operator from Amazon said: "We are getting a lot of these requests" before confirming that if customers contact them, they can tell the packaging department to "replace plastic with paper."

To opt out of receiving plastic packaging with your order, you can go to Amazon's Customer Services, and request to speak online.

After being prompted through automatic links, type in "reduce plastic in orders". Scroll down to the bottom where it says "item not on list" and then click "speak to an associate".

You can then chat to a customer services representative online, who should be able to help you.

Tips on reducing waste

Blogger Polly Barks runs a website dedicated to green living. She offers other tips on reducing waste from Amazon's global shopping empire.

She said: "My success rate isn’t 100 per cent with this, but I’d guess three out of my last five packages have been packaged without plastic."

This shows the power consumers have over giant companies.

With just a little know-how people concerned about a company's policies can begin contacting it en masse until it can no longer ignore the requests.