Tons of unsold products would be destroyed by Amazon every year. The e-commerce company starts news projects for the circular economy and the third sector. Less waste and more revenues for SMEs are the intentions behind these projects.

An inquiry by the ITV Channel has highlighted how Amazon wastes millions of unsold or returned products by customers every year. In response to this, the company has already launched two circular economy programs in various countries, while a third is aimed for the third sector by Amazon Italy. Through such concrete actions, the multinational is betting everything on the circular economy of waste.

According to Amazon, the implementation of these programs has a twofold objective:

• To support its partners who, in this way, can obtain new income from the sale of products;
• To protect the environment, preventing over 300 million products from becoming waste every year, even before they have been used.

Through such programs, Amazon intends to achieve the Climate Pledge goals, which include zero emissions by 2040 and 100% renewable energy use by 2025.

The two circular economy programs

The "Liquidation" program allows SMEs to take advantage of the technology and the wholesale channel to contact liquidators who work with Amazon. In this way, products can be returned by customers. Already active in the United States, Germany, France, Spain and, soon, also in the United Kingdom, this program offers an alternative to partners, compared to the more expensive choices of returning or long-term storage of products in Amazon warehouses. The “Evaluation and Resale” program, on the other hand, allows partners to sell items returned by end customers as second-hand products. Amazon will classify each returned product according to its condition prior to listing, and SMEs will then be able to choose the price and follow the normal procedures for new items.

The new "Donations" program

Among the goals of Amazon's programs, there is also support to associations operating in the third sector. “Donations” is the Amazon Italia program that has already made it possible to donate products worth over 100,000 euros to the LILT (Lega Italiana Lotta ai Tumori).