Why Amazon UK Warehouse destroys over 100,000 items every week?

Amazon has faced a lot of controversies against its working policy in the past. The company has been criticized for following a hire to fire policy and a lot of employees conveying about it on the social media platforms. Recently the company has been criticized for destroying around 1.3 lakh items and in this article let’s look into more information about it.

Amazon – Latest News
Reason Why Amazon destroys over 100,000 items every week
Does the unsold items go to Charity or Donation?
Amazon's response on Why it destroys items every week
FAQ

Amazon – Latest News

A new report has stated that Amazon is estimated to destroy around millions of unsold items on a yearly basis. The items include books, electronics and now even the face masks due to the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic. It was found as per the new investigation conducted on the company.

Footage was collected from one of the fulfillment centers of Amazon among the 24 centers. The footage shows certain boxes which have unsold items and a label that is marked on them destroy. This has created a lot of attention on why these destroyed items are not used for charitable purposes rather than destroying them.

Reason Why Amazon destroys over 100,000 items every week

One of the major reasons for destroying the items is due to the lack of space in the fulfillment centers. Many vendors use the warehouses of Amazon in order to store their products and after a certain period of time when the products are unused and unsold, destroying or disposing of them is considered to be cheaper than paying for their storage cost.

An ex-employee from the Amazon center had conveyed that they had a target to destroy around 1.3 lakh items on a weekly basis that is from Friday to Friday.

The former employee had conveyed that there are no specific items that get destroyed. He had shared that from MacBook, iPad, Dyson fans every item gets destroyed. He even shared an experience where he conveyed that he saw them destroying around 20,000 Covid face masks that were still in their wrappers.

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Does the unsold items go to Charity or Donation?

While looking at the number of items that get destroyed, the number of items that are provided for charitable purposes is very less. The items that were going to be destroyed had 'to destroy' written on their boxes and the items that are given as charity has 'to donate' written on them. The difference between the two boxes is very large.

The number of items that are destroyed was somewhere around 1.3 lakhs, at the same time the number of items that were given as charity was somewhere around 28,000 comparing to the same period of time.

However, half of the items that were marked destroy are brand new ones which haven’t even been removed from the cover and the others are the ones that are returned by the customers.

Amazon's response on Why it destroys items every week

It is estimated that the company destroys more than 3 million products in a particular year. The Amazon spokesperson said that, the goal of the company is to ensure zero product disposal and added that they are working towards it.

He added that the priority of the company is to donate to charitable organizations or to recycle any unsold items. He said that, no items are sent to destroy in the UK and said that as a last resort the company would send items for energy recovery and also said that the company is working hard in order to reduce this number to zero.

However, it was found that certain products were sent for destroying and had tracked that the products were packed and loaded to the truck from Amazon’s warehouses. The Amazon spokesperson had provided the information regarding these in the year 2019 and later on hasn’t provided any updates about it or any information regarding the change of infrastructure.

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Conclusion

Even certain employees have been complaining that the daily wages provided by Amazon are not helping them reach their basic requirements and such other laborers have also said that Jeff Bezos donates money for charity in order to gain tax benefits.

FAQ

What happens to unsold inventory in Amazon?

The unsold inventory in Amazon is either destroyed or is given to charity purposes.

Does Amazon destroys unsold products?

Yes, in a recent report it was found that Amazon warehouse destroys around 1.3 lakh unsold items every week.

How many fulfillment centers does Amazon have in the world?

There are currently 185 active fulfillment centers in the world.