An Amazon warehouse in Scotland, UK, destroys thousands of goods a week that the retail giant online can’t sell. The information was broadcast on Monday by a British TV channel. ITV have received images of laptop computers, masks, books, jewelry and televisions, which must be placed in boxes labeled “Destroy”.
ITV was alerted to the situation from a former Amazon employee, who said the team at the warehouse must dispose of at least 130,000 units every seven days. On-site recordings and internal documents obtained by the channel confirm this information in an April memo, listing 124,000 units in the warehouse to be destroyed within a week. Only 28,000 items were donated.
Products include goods that the seller online not sold or returned by buyers. According to ITV, which followed the vans with boxes to be destroyed, everything ends up in recycling centers or sanitary landfills.
Resale and recycling is a priority, according to Amazon.
Amazon, contacted by PÚBLICO, emphasizes that warehouse goods in Scotland were sent to a recycling center and that there are no landfills in the UK.
In a statement, Robin Byrd, responsible processing center Lochheadin Scotland have confirmed receipt of goods from Amazon. Products giant technology that cannot be recycled is used to generate electricity by incinerating waste.
“We are working to bring these cases down to zero,” Amazon said in its response. “Our priority is to resell, donate to charity or recycle unsold goods.”
Part of Amazon’s business relies on storing goods, which retailers ship to the tech giant for storage until they are sold. The problem is that the price that Amazon charges increases as the time that items are in stock increases. After all, the products are no longer worth storing and retailers are asking Amazon to destroy them.
In 2019, investigations into a French television program Capital and from a British newspaper Daily mail has already warned of the destruction of thousands of Amazon products.
At the time, controversy sparked the launch of the Fulfillment by Amazon Donations donation program in the United States and the United Kingdom to facilitate the donation of products held in Amazon warehouses. If retailers are not website Amazon companies cannot sell their products, they can ask Amazon to donate them to partner institutions instead of destroying them. Over the past two years, the program has already donated 20 million products to charities in the UK.
