Have you ever bought anything from Amazon? The online retailer has countless warehouses around the world, stocked with gadgets, smart speakers, housewares, books, and everything else you might have thought to buy. But when something sits unsold long enough, what happens next?
Apparently, it went to the dump, until now.
Amazon has now announced a new community initiative program, which will kick off in the United States and the United Kingdom, donating hundreds of thousands of unwanted products to third-party sellers, which would otherwise be lost. Market vendors will be able to donate to groups such as "Newlife, Salvation Army and Barnardo's" in the UK or Good360 in the US.
Products tend to be discarded when they are simply too stocked, or suffer too many returns, and the original manufacturer has nowhere to go.
Asking Amazon to dispose of a product is still relatively cheap, only €0.15 (approximately €0.12), but Amazon has made it much easier for these products to find people who can use them.
The Fulfilled by Amazon (or "FBA") initiative will begin on September 1. It is likely to be rolled out beyond the US and UK soon after. Given how much waste Amazon is guilty of, having released three million TVs in 2018 alone, it can't happen soon enough.
By the edge