MP wants answers from Amazon over stock destruction reports

Warrington North MP Charlotte Nichols has sent a letter to the manager at Amazon Warrington, based in Great Sankey, following national news reports of the ‘shameful’ destruction of stock.

It comes after Amazon was branded ‘obscene’ after an investigation at one of its Scottish warehouses suggested the online retail giant is destroying millions of items every year.

ITV News found items, including smart TVs, laptops, drones, hairdryers and thousands of sealed face masks, were sorted into boxes marked ‘destroy’ at the firm’s Dunfermline site.

One ex-employee at the warehouse, one of 24 such sites across the UK, said their ‘target was to generally destroy 130,000 items a week’.

In her letter, Ms Nichols says she is ‘horrified’ by the reports, stating such items could easily be donated to local charities, such as Warrington Foodbank, Friends of Meadowside and St Rocco's in her constituency, which are facing difficult times.

And she has called for Amazon Warrington to confirm how many goods are either destroyed or donated at the Great Sankey site.

She said: “I am writing with my concern at newspaper reports of staggering amounts of waste at Amazon warehouses of apparently hundreds of thousands of items being destroyed every week.

“You will appreciate my horror, and that of the wider public, that Amazon reportedly imposes targets on your staff to dump as many goods each week, including new, unopened and unused electronic products.

Photo issued by ITV News of various technology products found sorted into boxes marked 'destroy' at the Amazon warehouse in Dunfermline

“As well as being wasteful and environmentally damaging, I regret to read that destruction is routinely preferred over donations to charity.

“With Amazon’s profits being so astronomically high, I would expect that the company could afford to be more efficient in its stocktaking and more proactive in pursuing charitable alternatives to stock destruction.

“I would appreciate you informing me what have been the average weekly numbers of goods destroyed and goods donated nationally and from the Warrington warehouse over the past year, as well as your assurance hat there will now be a commitment to donate a much greater proportion.”

Speaking to the Warrington Guardian, the MP added: “Amazon’s profits have more than tripled during Covid, from $2.5bn to $8.1bn.

“It is one of the most prominent and profitable companies in the world, and it can afford to set an example.

“Even if it is happy to ditch perfectly good products on a massive scale, we should demand that it do better and it should be encouraged to donate to local schools and worthy charities like Warrington Foodbank, Friends of Meadowside and St Rocco's.”

After being contacted by the Warrington Guardian, an Amazon spokesman confirmed that it had received the letter and will be responding.

They added: “We think it is important to set the record straight: we do not send items to landfill in the UK.

“Every year we donate millions of products to charities across the country. We have got more work to do, but our goal is to get to zero product disposal.”

Photo issued by ITV News of various technology products found sorted into boxes marked 'destroy' at the Amazon warehouse in Dunfermline

According to the anonymous Dunfermline worker, 50 per cent of destroyed items are unopened and still in their wrapping, with the other half being returns and in good condition.

The investigation also found a leaked document, which showed more than 124,000 items were marked ‘destroy’ during one week in April, compared to just 28,000 items in the same period labelled ‘donate’.

In response to the document, an Amazon spokesman said that while the investigation followed lorries to a landfill site, no items are disposed of in that way.

A statement from Amazon said: “We are working towards a goal of zero product disposal and our priority is to resell, donate to charitable organisations or recycle any unsold products.

“No items are sent to landfill in the UK. As a last resort, we will send items to energy recovery, but we are working hard to drive the number of times this happens down to zero.

“We are committed to reducing our environmental footprint and building a circular economy programme with the aim of reducing returns, reusing and reselling products, and reducing disposals.”

Energy recovery is when recyclable materials are stripped from products before the rest is reconverted into energy and put through the national grid.

But the spokesman maintained this was a last resort for the company and also denied it was cheaper to dispose of the items instead of returning them to domestic sellers.