Amazon destroys thousands of unsold products every day in Spain

Amazon destroys thousands of products every day in Spain, Reuters reported. These are returned products that have minor defects , such as damaged packaging or missing electronics , or are not worth returning to the original seller .

Amazon considers that managing unsold products is a "challenge" for all businesses, so it prioritizes reselling, recycling or donating some products that are defective or not worth returning to the original seller . Most of these are electronics, but there are also clothes, liquids, cosmetics and even food in the boxes that are sent directly to the destruction factory.

Generally , there is a destruction label on the box of products that need to be destroyed, and next to it is the type of product. It is understood that a person who is very familiar with this part of the business and industry said that the destruction is not done by Amazon, but subcontracted to a professional company called Saica.

Saica, a Zaragoza-based wastebasket with a waste management subsidiary, Saica Natur, has a factory in the industrial area of ​​San Martín de la Vega, south of Madrid. It’s a place littered with trash, small pieces of plastic and scraps of paper , and inside , workers say they destroy millions of tons of material from the Amazon every day .

Saica Natur is unable to destroy various materials , and electronic and hazardous waste require special handling. So it outsources to other companies. The company said "we work with various agents to ensure the correct disposal of waste." Saica Natur also has a factory in Scotland, which was recently caught by the country's police shipping a large amount of illegal waste to China. They would not comment on this.

Carlos Fernández, the founder of BuyBox, a software for managing sales on different Internet platforms, including Amazon, knows the guts of this giant very well, since he runs a Spanish company that specializes in selling small products such as electronics, office supplies, tools, etc. to Amazon.

“Sellers send products to Amazon’s warehouses. If one arrives in bad condition, they notify you and you have two options: either return it to you to be repaired, or destroy it for you. Although they don’t charge us anything, the price of it changes every day,” Fernandez said , explaining that the third option is to sell the product in liquidation.

Amazon Spain destroys thousands of unsold products