After a report showed Amazon destroying millions of unsold items in the UK, Amazon introduces two programs to reduce waste, including reselling used items
- The so-called Fulfilment by Amazon programs, announced in a blog post on Wednesday, will help to build a circular economy, the company said.
Context & Ripple Effects
The ITV investigation into Amazon's Dunfermline warehouse — reporting that a source claimed 130K unsold items were being destroyed per week — put Amazon's disposal practices under sustained scrutiny through mid-2021. The company had already given third-party sellers one alternative with FBA Donations, launched in 2019 to route surplus stock to charities instead of landfill.
Wednesday's announcement extends that playbook from donating to reselling: new Fulfilment by Amazon programs that return used goods to saleable inventory, framed by Amazon as building a circular economy. The move converts a reputational liability into a merchandise channel — a bet that paid off visibly later, when an executive sized UK and European pre-owned sales at $1.3B.
First-order effects
- FBA sellers now have a recovery option between donation and destruction: items previously written off at Dunfermline-style facilities can re-enter Amazon's marketplace as used stock, changing what 'unsold' costs them.
Second-order effects
- If the reselling program scales the way the later $1.3B pre-owned business suggests it did, used inventory becomes a priced product line inside FBA rather than a disposal cost — shifting seller economics toward keeping goods in Amazon's warehouses longer.
Third-order effects
- Waste exposure from investigative reporting is becoming a forcing function for logistics platforms to internalize reverse logistics — donation, resale, packaging reduction — as standard fulfillment features rather than PR responses.
The trend: E-commerce fulfillment is absorbing circular-economy functions — donations, resale, packaging cuts — as regulators and investigations push disposal costs back onto platform operators.