Amazon is junking potentially millions of unsold goods, including TVs and toys, in a ‘destruction’ zone

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

• Amazon has been junking potentially millions of unsold products, two investigations have found.
• The first investigation from a French documentary in January secretly filmed a "destruction" zone in a warehouse where items were being trashed.
• On Saturday, the Mail on Sunday reported it sent a journalist undercover to a warehouse in the UK, where a manager told them some unsold items are junked.
• Amazon did not comment directly on whether it destroys unsold products.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Two investigations have found that Amazon warehouses destroy unsold items, some worth hundreds of dollars.

In a documentary for French TV station M6, a journalist went undercover at an Amazon warehouse. The reporter secretly filmed a designated "destruction" zone, where items were put in the trash. Items thrown away in front of the journalist included toys, books, nappies, and a flatscreen TV.

You can watch the undercover footage here:

The documentary, aired in January, reported that the practice was widespread in French Amazon warehouses. One of Amazon’s smallest warehouses in the country sent 293,000 items to the scrap heap in nine months, it said, while it obtained documents showing more than three million products were destroyed in France last year.

British newspaper, the Mail on Sunday, sent its own undercover reporter to a warehouse in the UK. The reporter asked a manager about unsold items, to which the manager responded: "Some are returned but some are also destroyed."

Read more: Muslim workers at Amazon say they were scared to pray for fear of being fired

Amazon declined to comment on whether it destroys merchandise when contacted by Business Insider, but a spokesman said it works with charities to find homes for unwanted goods. "For unsold products, we partner with a number of charities including In Kind Direct, a charity that works with non-profit organisations to distribute goods to charities across the UK," he said.

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See Also:

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• Amazon hit with 7 lawsuits from warehouse workers who say they were fired after getting pregnant
• Amazon reveals how third-party sellers are kicking its butt on sales as part of small business charm offensive

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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Isobel Asher Hamilton)