Oct 12, 2020 12:30:00

It is clear that many of the products returned to Amazon have been disposed of

Users who shop on the Internet prefer the free return option, but few know what the returned product is. So, CBC's investigative journalism

marketplace , a Canadian public broadcaster, returns products that it pretends to be customers and tracks how the returned products are treated.

Hidden cameras and secret trackers reveal where Amazon returns end up | CBC News
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/marketplace-amazon-returns-1.5753714

CBC pretends to be a new customer and buys 12 items on the marketplace, including backpacks, overalls, printers, coffee makers, tents, children's toys, household items, and hidden cameras and location information. I am returning with GPS for tracking. Tracking the returned items by CBC reveals that many marketplace items are simply discarded upon return.

Of the 12 items returned, only 4 were sold again on Amazon when the CBC article was published. A survey was conducted to track returned items a few months ago, but some items remain in Amazon's warehouse and others have already been disposed of in landfills.

The synthetic leather backpack returned by CBC was able to track the route from the Amazon warehouse in Mississauga, Ontario to the waste disposal site in Toronto. In addition, even in the case that CBC knows, at least one truck's returned products are discarded every week, and when there are many, as many as 3 to 5 trucks' worth of products are discarded.

'Some of the returned merchandise will be landfilled, and it will never be 100% recycled. It is impossible,' CBC said, asserting that the returned merchandise will not be recycled. doing.

EC demand is increasing more and more due to the pandemic of the new coronavirus, and in Canada,

sales in the EC market have more than doubled in a few months .

According to Kevin Lions, a researcher in supply chain management and environmental policy at Rutgers University in New Jersey, 30-40% of items purchased online are being returned. On the other hand, for products purchased in physical stores, the number is reduced to less than 10%.

Also, according to Optoro, a technology company that specializes in streamlining the return process in the retail industry, $ 400 billion worth of merchandise is returned to retailers each year, and £ 5 billion in the United States. It is estimated that (10,000 tons) of waste is generated.

In response to the findings, Jason Goldberg, Amazon's global marketing and chief commerce strategy, said a sales tactic that encourages customers to buy more products than they need and return only what they don't need. It had a tragic impact on the environment and business. ' Also, for retailers in the e-commerce market, 'It is a very difficult and costly operation to effectively process product returns, and we are fortunate if half of the returned products can be sold as new. Settle a large number of products.・ It is necessary to dispose of it by means such as repair, recycling, and landfill. ”He said that many of the returned products cannot be resold as new products.

In addition, Amazon's senior public relations manager, Alyssa Bronikowski, said the marketplace survey was inconsistent with Amazon's survey: 'Most of the excess and returned inventory depends on the condition of the product. It is resold to other customers or clearers, returned to suppliers, or donated to charity. If the product cannot be resold, donated, or recycled for safety or hygiene reasons. But we are working hard to reduce the number of this to zero, 'he told CBC. In addition, CBC asks what percentage of the products returned to Amazon are disposed of, but it seems that no answer was obtained.

On the other hand, according to a French television survey , hundreds of thousands of Amazon's returned inventory and excess inventory have been disposed of, which is inconsistent with Amazon's claim.