I wanted to make sure you saw this, Friend.

Every week, Amazon has its warehouses destroy hundreds of thousands of returned or unsold items.

Here's how one former employee described this horrifically wasteful practice: "I used to gasp. There's no rhyme or reason to what gets destroyed. ... Overall, 50 percent of all items are unopened and still in their shrink wrap."1

Does Amazon not know how much harm our out-of-control waste crisis is doing to our communities and our planet? Does it not worry about overflowing landfills, plastic in the ocean, or toxic electronic waste?

The world's biggest retailer needs to know that we won't stand by while it destroys and wastes usable products by the millions. Add your name to call on Amazon to stop shredding unsold or returned products.

Thank you,

Faye Park
President

1. Richard Pallot, "Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses every year, ITV News investigation finds," ITV News, June 22, 2021.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: U.S. PIRG <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, Aug 1, 2021
Subject: Tell Amazon: Stop shredding unused products
To: Friend <[email protected]>

This is outrageous, Friend.

A recent investigation has revealed that Amazon destroys millions of unsold or returned products every year.

TVs, laptops, household items, books and even face masks still sealed in their original packaging -- all like-new products that Amazon directs its warehouses to destroy rather than reuse or redistribute. One ex-employee says they were told their "target" was to destroy over 100,000 items every week.1

It's absurd we even have to say this: The world's biggest retailer shouldn't be destroying unsold or returned products. Will you raise your voice with us and tell Amazon to stop this careless, wasteful practice?

But maybe we're being too hard on Amazon. Maybe its leadership doesn't know that the world's waste crisis has resulted in such horrors as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (a mass of garbage soup in the Pacific Ocean twice the size of Texas), not to mention overflowing landfills and trash-ridden open spaces such as parks and beaches.2

Maybe the retail giant isn't aware that less than 10 percent of the plastic that's ever been thrown out has successfully been recycled.3 Or that toxic electronic waste has become the world's fastest-growing stream of municipal solid waste.4

I'm kidding. Any company -- especially one that claims to prioritize sustainability -- should know the myriad threats that our ever-growing waste problem poses to our communities, our environment and our health.5 And throwing out millions of perfectly usable or repairable products every year is certainly not helping.

Add your name to call on Amazon to stop shredding unsold or returned products.

This astounding practice had gone largely unnoticed until former employees at the warehouses came forward and revealed what they had seen.

"I used to gasp. There's no rhyme or reason to what gets destroyed. ... Overall, 50 percent of all items are unopened and still in their shrink wrap. The other half are returns and in good condition. Staff have just become numb to what they are being asked to do."6

Most of us were already aware of the harm our throwaway culture does to us and our planet -- but this is a whole new level of unnecessary waste, and it needs to stop.

Amazon needs to know that we won't stand by while it destroys and wastes usable products by the millions. Send your message to Amazon CEO Andy Jassy today.

Thank you,

Faye Park
President

1. Richard Pallot, "Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses every year, ITV News investigation finds," ITV News, June 22, 2021.
2. "Great Pacific Garbage Patch," National Geographic, last accessed July 15, 2021.
3. "A Whopping 91 Percent of Plastic Isn't Recycled," National Geographic, last accessed July 15, 2021.
4. Radhamely De Leon, "Happy Prime Day, Amazon Is Destroying Millions of Products a Year," VICE, June 22, 2021.
5. "Amazon Sustainability," Amazon.com, last accessed July 15, 2021.
6. Richard Pallot, "Amazon destroying millions of items of unsold stock in one of its UK warehouses every year, ITV News investigation finds," ITV News, June 22, 2021.