MESS The business model of the UK business allows this practice
Amazon: Nearly 130,000 unsold items are destroyed every week in the UK
Within a week, “our goal was to destroy up to 130,000 objects per week,” a former employee of the Dunfermline center told British media. During their investigation, the journalists were able to have access to documents revealing, for example, that 124,000 products were marked “destruction” and 28,000 the inscription “donation”.
A law prohibits this practice in France
This huge mess can be explained in particular by Amazon’s economic model. The company is charging higher and higher storage fees to sellers who want to go through its marketplace, as time goes on. When they end up with unsold goods, they often prefer that Amazon proceed with the destruction of these products rather than recover them at their own expense.
If in England this practice is not illegal, in France a law dating from 2019 requires the reuse, donation and recycling of unsold items. This was decided following a report by Capital , broadcast on M6 , in which we could see products destroyed in an Amazon warehouse in Chalon-sur-Saône (Saône-et-Loire), specifies BFMTV on this subject .
