Amazon is the world’s largest e-commerce company, shipping millions of orders every day. But not everything listed on Amazon finds a buyer. Some products remain unsold, while many items are returned to Amazon and never find a buyer again. From laptops and tablets to smart TVs, the list goes on.
The e-commerce giant has implemented a framework to manage unsold inventory, designed to minimize e-waste. According to Amazon’s Sustainability Report, the company optimizes its inventory to reduce waste and helps customers make an informed choice to reduce returns. For returned or unsold products, Amazon prioritizes reuse, recycling, and donation. But this doesn’t happen every time.
Over the past few years, countless investigations have revealed something many people don’t know. Amazon destroys millions of unsold items every year, according to an ITV investigation. Stored in large boxes marked “destroy,” unsold inventory would be sent to recycling centers and landfills. Even expensive tech products like MacBooks and iPads suffer the same fate, according to the report. Part of the problem is economic, but environmental groups have long been concerned about these practices and their environmental impact.
Amazon resells, recycles or donates unsold technology
For its part, Amazon claims that none of its items end up in UK landfills, contradicting the ITV report. In a blog post, Amazon says its “priority is to resell, recycle, or donate all unsold products to charity,” and that only items that cannot be recycled at this point are sent to energy recovery. The blog also details the steps Amazon is taking to reduce returns and disposals. Two of its biggest initiatives are Amazon Resale and Amazon Warehouse, where returned products are categorized and sold at discounted prices to attract buyers. This includes products like laptops, smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and other top-notch tech accessories. As for products that are still in new condition, they are labeled as “new” and sold directly through Amazon.
Amazon also claims to work with third-party sellers on resale, liquidation and donation programs. When sellers opt for liquidation, unsold inventory, including technology products, is auctioned off on liquidation markets. Amazon’s sustainability report highlights how the company, in 2024 alone, helped third-party sellers resell or donate approximately 391 million products in the United States and Europe. In the same report, Amazon claims to have donated 166 million items from its inventory worldwide in 2024.
Sometimes, sellers also reduce prices to clear their unsold inventory for products belonging to the FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) category. This is because sellers are charged a higher fee, called a backstock surcharge, on unsold products that sit in Amazon fulfillment centers for more than 181 days.
Some electronic devices may still end up being destroyed
Even with these programs and Amazon’s recent changes, products still end up being destroyed, or what Amazon calls “processing non-recyclable waste and turning it into usable energy sources.” In its 2021 survey, ITV highlighted that 124,000 items were marked destroyed in a single week, with around half still unopened. During the same period, the number of products earmarked for donation stood at 28,000. The gap may have narrowed in recent years, with Amazon introducing new frames, but the fact remains that many products still end up being recycled for replacement parts or destroyed. And there’s an incentive for everyone involved because of the way things work.
Amazon charges sellers a fee for renting storage space in its warehouses. And he expects those stocks to move quickly. When products remain unsold for a specific period of time, Amazon increases storage fees. And over time, it becomes more profitable for sellers to dispose of their products rather than store them. For many reputed and well-known brands, this also becomes a necessity as they do not want their products to be listed at very low prices. This directly harms their brand image and product appeal.
Whether a product is resold, listed at a discount, donated, or ends up recycled or destroyed depends largely on Amazon and the seller. But it shows us a darker side of e-commerce, which is that sometimes it’s easier, faster and cheaper to get rid of perfectly usable products than to find buyers.
