Amazon destroys millions of unsold products every year

Among the 130,000 products labelled 'destroy' we can find thousands of unsealed masks.

21 June 2021 is Amazon’s Prime Day and what it won’t be sold to you will end in landfills.

Amazon destroys products which are not just damaged pieces so unsellable or unworking. Everything which is left unsold, even if in perfect conditions is going to the landfill.

Products Amazon destroys goes to landfill

Among the ‘going to be destroyed’ products we can see electrical goods, jewelry, unread books and thousands of covid masks still in their plastic wrappers. The lorries, which bring away the bins full of ‘waste’, have been tracked up to either a recycling centre or landfill site.

Approximately 130,000 items are destroyed per week, just from one centre. Half of them are unopened still packed in their shrink wrap, the other 50% are returns but still in good conditions.

Concerned arise about amazon’s environmental practices. Is just an unimaginable amount of unnecessary waste. There is not purpose of throwing away a brand new Mac, Dyson fan, Hoovers, SmartTv and so on. Each of these items requires natural resources and carbon emissions and human labour to make. If amazon continues expanding, thing are going to get worse. That is why, the government, needs to step in and set legislation.

Amazon’s response is:

We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint and building a circular economy program with the aim of reducing returns, reusing and reselling products, and reducing disposals

Why Amazon doesn’t donate its unsold?

In addition to the unethical behavior towards the environment, Amazon could have given these products to charity. Especially during covid we’ve seen how many kids needed to abandon school due to not having a computer. Another example, which is totally immorale, is destroying the covid masks. If England did not required anymore such high stock of masks; they could have sent it to countries like India or South America. A document from the Dunfermline warehouse showed 124,000 items marked ‘destroy’. In contrast, the labelled ‘donate’ where only 28,000.

Amazon response to ITV News, after the findings of the investigation is:

We are working towards a goal of zero product disposal and our priority is to resell, donate to charitable organizations 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.