Amazon destroying hundreds of thousands of unsold items every week
Amazon is destroying hundreds of thousands of unsold items every week, amounting to millions of items each year, many of which are new and unused.
An undercover investigation by ITV found Smart TVs, laptops, drones, hairdryers, top of the range headphones, computer drives, books and thousands of sealed face masks were sorted into boxes marked ‘destroy’ at Amazon’s Dunfermline warehouse.
The items were then carried away by lorries and dumped at either recycling centres of landfill sites.
An ex-employee who asked to remain anonymous told ITV: “From a Friday to a Friday our target was to generally destroy 130,000 items a week.
“I used to gasp. There’s no rhyme or reason to what gets destroyed: Dyson fans, Hoovers, the occasional MacBook and iPad; the other day, 20,000 Covid (face) masks still in their wrappers.”
They said half of the items to be destroyed are unopened and still in their wrapping, the other half are returns and in good condition.
A leaked document from April from the Dunfermline warehouse showed more than 124,000 items were marked ‘destroy’ while just 28,000 were marked ‘donate’.
The investigation’s findings coincide with Prime Day, a 48-hour sale on Amazon that is similar to Black Friday in scope.
Amazon’s business model means many vendors choose to house their products in Amazon’s warehouses, but the longer goods remain unsold, the more expensive it is to house them.
As a result, it is cheaper for vendors to get rid of stock than continue to store it.
In a statement given to ITV, Amazon said: “We are working towards a goal of zero product disposal and our priority is to resell, donate to charitable organisations or recycle any unsold products.
“No items are sent to landfill in the UK. As a last resort, we will send items to energy recovery, but we’re working hard to drive the number of times this happens down to zero.”
Sam Chetan-Welsh, political advisor to Greenpeace UK, added: “For a public worried about our creaking recycling infrastructure and overflowing landfill sites, this is an unimaginable amount of unnecessary waste.
“It’s just shocking to see a company making billions in profits getting rid of brand new stock in this way. Expensive products that took energy and resources to manufacture come straight off the production line and into our overstretched waste system, and the high taxes needed to dispose of it all aren’t being paid by Amazon.
“Other countries have laws to prevent this type of appalling waste, and our government needs to bring in similar legislation immediately.”