Investigation finds Amazon has been destroying thousands of unsold goods at its UK-based Dunfermline warehouse; source says 130K items are destroyed per week

ITV 2021-06-22 Richard Pallot

Context & Ripple Effects

Amazon had already introduced FBA Donations for unsold third-party inventory in the US and UK, making the Dunfermline findings a test of how far disposal alternatives reached in practice. The report later preceded new Amazon programs for reselling used goods and reducing waste, turning a warehouse-level allegation into a broader inventory-handling issue for the company.

First-order effects

Amazon’s UK fulfillment operation faces immediate scrutiny after the investigation reported destruction of thousands of unsold goods at Dunfermline, with a source citing 130,000 items per week.
The report puts Amazon’s existing donation route for third-party sellers in sharper focus, since unsold inventory was still reportedly being destroyed at scale.

Second-order effects

Amazon is pressured to shift more eligible stock from disposal into donation or resale channels, while demonstrating that those programs work across UK warehouses.
Third-party sellers using Amazon fulfillment gain a stronger incentive to examine how their unsold inventory is handled and what disposal alternatives are available.

Third-order effects

The sequence from donation programs to reported destruction and later resale initiatives points toward fulfillment networks treating reverse logistics as a core operating function rather than an end-of-life exception.
If large marketplaces standardize resale and donation for unsold stock, warehouse efficiency will be judged not only by delivery throughput but also by how much inventory avoids disposal.

The trend: Large marketplaces are moving toward more formal reverse-logistics systems as scrutiny exposes the gap between unsold-inventory disposal policies and warehouse practice.

Discussion

@itvnews @itvnews on x
Exclusive: Amazon is destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses every year, an ITV News investigation has uncovered. Many of the products - including smart TVs and laptops - are often new and unused. https://www.itv.com/... #AmazonWaste https://twitt…
@juliabradbury Julia Bradbury on x
21st Century consumerism: We throw away a third of our food globally while others starve & 124,000 unwanted/unsold items are destroyed by Amazon. Imagine if they were given to a charity or families in need.... https://twitter.com/...
@marycreagh_ Mary Creagh Cbe on x
In a year when thousands of children struggled to learn at home because they didn't have a laptop, this is deeply shocking... https://twitter.com/...
@benjaminnorton Ben Norton on x
When propagandists insist “capitalism is the most efficient system,” remember that Amazon, owned by the richest man in history, destroys millions of products every year, including unused laptops, because it makes more money in the long term destroying rather then giving them away…
@rtyson82 @rtyson82 on x
artificial scarcity to maintain price, and therefore profit, is inherent to capitalism https://twitter.com/...
@jay_beecher Jay Beecher on x
Jesus. Surely @amazon could donate them to local charities. https://twitter.com/...
@pecunium T Karney on x
They can afford it, in no small part, because Amazon pays almost nothing in taxes. And criminally underpays it's workers. https://twitter.com/...
@chey_cobb CyberSec Chey on x
If I were a school, a charity, or the local council, I'd be hanging outside the doors of this Amazon facility in Dunfermline to beg for access to these goods, for the benefit of the community. https://twitter.com/...
@think_or_swim John Gibbons on x
Absolutely staggering. If you were to write a screenplay about a giant corporation whose true mission is to destroy Planet Earth while making one guy stupendously wealthy, you could hardly do better than Amazon https://twitter.com/...
@dawnbutlerbrent Dawn Butler MP on x
This is shocking! Imagine how many charities and schools could redistribute these products to those in need. The huge environmental waste is unacceptable. It makes no sense, Amazon should be ashamed! People, products, profit - Amazon only cares about one. https://twitter.com/...
@owswills Owen Williams on x
Unbearably wasteful 😩 https://twitter.com/...
@mattcoleworks Dr Matt on x
Capitalism is waste. Amazon saves more by destroying 140,000 useful products a week than bothering to provide them to those in need. The only reason these aren't donated to the thousands of charities that exist in the UK is pure bottom-line greed. https://twitter.com/...
@wsjudd Will Judd on x
Amazon could become like the biggest charity contributor if it actually donated this stuff rather than just chucking them out - utterly senseless. https://twitter.com/...
@gayasktn @gayasktn on x
And yet, if you criticise this utterly wasteful and cruel system and call for something new you will be derided as a “hard left” maniac and the media and political class will stumble over themselves to de-legitimise you. https://twitter.com/...
@xr_cambridge XR Cambridge on x
Those efficient, resource-allocating market forces at work again! https://twitter.com/...
@hypervisible Hypervisible Dot Pdf on x
A former Amazon employee said “workers at the warehouse were given a weekly target of 130,000 items to destroy.” https://www.businessinsider.com/ ...
@angelarayner Angela Rayner on x
This is the dark side of capitalism that Amazon don't want you to see. The wealth of Amazon's founder and CEO Jeff Bezos increased by $70 billion last year, and Amazon don't pay their fair share of taxes here. Meanwhile, they throw away items that could be put to good use. https:…
@zarahsultana Zarah Sultana MP on x
Amazon UK is destroying millions of new, unused products every year, from laptops and TVs to face-masks and books. This is while 14+ million people in the UK are in poverty. This is what putting profit before people looks like. https://twitter.com/...
@atbwebb Alex Webb on x
The noise about the environmental impact of e-commerce seems to be increasing in volume. 1/ https://twitter.com/...
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
this is a shocking and infuriating waste @AmazonNewsUK wtf https://twitter.com/...
@olifranklin Oli Franklin-Wallis on x
“In one week in April, a leaked document from inside the Dunfermline warehouse showed more than 124,000 items marked ‘destroy’.” A totally staggering story. Amazon sending vast amounts of often brand new products to landfill/waste https://www.itv.com/...
@janeygodley Janey Godley on x
Why can't they give the unsold return stock to charities, churches providing goods to the community or homeless units? This is making me raging - #amazonwaste https://twitter.com/...
@misszing Zing Tsjeng on x
This is absolutely staggering and it reminds me of Burberry burning £28million of stock rather than discount anything - except the scale of this is so much worse. You could donate those masks, laptops or fans to hospitals, schools or families! https://twitter.com/...
@alexhern Alex Hern on x
Amazon sets up a system where it charges sellers by the month to store stock in its warehouse, offers a service where it will destroy items that haven't sold, and then washes its hands of the fact that it disposes of more than 80,000 unsold goods a week https://www.itv.com/...
@itvnews @itvnews on x
ITV News followed one of the lorries loaded with containers marked ‘electrical destroy’ from the Dunfermline warehouse to a waste recycling centre. We filmed the pallets piled with unwanted goods being unloaded at the site. #AmazonWaste
@sam_l_shead Sam Shead on x
Former Amazon warehouse worker claims his centre was asked to find 130,000 items to “destroy” per week including the odd MacBook. ITV News says it tracked many of these items to a UK landfill site. Mad if true. Fwiw, Amazon says no items are sent to landfill in the UK https://twi…
@itvnews @itvnews on x
A former Amazon employee secretly filmed the ‘destruction zone’ at the company's Dunfermline warehouse where unwanted goods are marked ‘destroy’. A leaked document showed more than 124,000 items marked as ‘destroy’ in just a week. Watch: https://www.itv.com/... #AmazonWaste
@itvnews @itvnews on x
Amazon's UK boss John Boumphrey told ITV News just six weeks ago - before he knew of our investigation - the amount of unwanted stock that was destroyed was “extremely small”. https://www.itv.com/... #AmazonWaste https://twitter.com/...
@anneapplebaum Anne Applebaum on x
this is genuinely shocking https://twitter.com/...

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