Amazon Warehouse undercover video reveals company destroys ‘millions’ of unsold items

Online e-commerce giant Amazon is destroying and discarding “millions” of unsold items each year, many of which are new, according to video research.

An investigation by ITV News into one of Amazon’s “fulfillment centers” in the UK, where items are processed before they are shipped and delivered, found that all manner of items, from televisions and laptops to drones, hair dryers and books, were placed in boxes marked “destroy”

The report, released Monday on ITV’s website, comes as the online retailer embarks on its “Prime Day,” offering deals on thousands of products from June 21-22.

The British news channel carried out the investigation of Amazon’s Dunfermline warehouse in Scotland.

It found that the items that were thrown away were those that were never sold, or returned by customers. Instead of giving them away, all items were dumped in containers and trucked to recycling centers or landfills.

A former employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told ITV: “From Friday to Friday our goal was to destroy 130,000 items a week overall.

“I used to gasp. There is no rhyme or reason for what gets destroyed: Dyson fans, Hoovers, the occasional MacBook and iPad, the other day 20,000 Covid (face) masks still in their wrappers. “

“Overall, 50 percent of all items are unopened and still in their shrink wrap. The other half are returns and undamaged. The staff has just become insensitive to what they are being asked to do. “

A document leaked in April from inside the warehouse showed that more than 124,000 items were marked for destruction in just seven days. ITV reported that in contrast, only 28,000 items in that same period were labeled “donate.”

The former employee told the news channel that in a few weeks, up to 200,000 items could be destroyed.

In a statement emailed to this website, Amazon denied sending unused products to landfills in the UK

“We are working towards a zero product disposal target and our priority is to resell, donate to charities or recycle any unsold products. Items are not sent to landfills in the UK. As a last resort we will send items to energy recovery, but we are working hard to boost the amount of times.This is a short summary.

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