An investigation by the British channel ITV has focused on Amazon’s policy to get rid of products that take up space in its warehouses; although the company defends itself stating that this waste does not go to landfills, and that it is working to change.
We are in the week of Prime Day, the most important event of the year for Amazon where we can find countless offers in all sections. As a counterpart to Black Friday in a few months, Prime Day is a great opportunity to get hold of that technological device that we were so eager to buy.
It is no coincidence that it has been just now that one of the great problems that Amazon has to offer such a quantity of products at a low price has been revealed: it simply does not have space in the warehouses, and many units end up being destroyed.
According to ITV research and testimonies from former workers, at the Glasgow logistics center, Scotland alone, 130,000 goods are destroyed every week every week ; This warehouse alone would already produce more than a million and a half destroyed products, regardless of those in the rest of the world. All kinds of products go through this process, and a video shows books, masks, tools and more, all in their original box.
But it’s the electronic devices that are hit the hardest, with MacBooks, iPads, Dyson vacuums and more getting wiped out this way. It is especially worrisome, not only because of the electronic waste problem, but because these units are not broken, and in many cases, they have not even been removed from their respective boxes.
Why Amazon destroys products
Some of these destroyed devices come from customers, who have returned them for whatever reason. But in many other cases, they are not owned by Amazon, but by third-party stores that use the giant’s web platform to sell their merchandise quickly and easily.
But these sellers sometimes decide not to continue paying to keep the item in stock, especially if the sales are poor; in that case, Amazon is left with a product that takes up space, it is not giving any profit, but it cannot sell either. To this must be added that many products come from the other side of the world, and returning them is a serious investment in transport.
In that situation, Amazon has no choice but to dispose of them, sometimes destroying them, and sometimes donating them to charities. In a leaked document last April, 124,000 products were marked as “destroy” by Amazon employees, while 28,000 were marked as “donation.”
Amazon has not denied the results of the investigation, but it has clarified some points. To begin with, it ensures that the destroyed products go for recycling , and in no case will they end up in landfills; His priority is to donate to charitable organizations and recycle unsold products. Also, you seem to be aware of this problem, promising to work hard to reduce the number of times this occurs to zero.
