When goods do not sell, companies try other ways to get rid of them. Greenpeace is now accusing Amazon of destroying too many new items. Amazon disagrees.

Online giants Adventuress According to the environmental protection organization Greenpeace, new goods continue to be destroyed. Greenpeace reported on Thursday that at the Vinson site in Lower Saxony, the originally packaged products are pre-sorted for destruction at eight workplaces. Amazon emphasized that the products that had to be disposed of were “in the range per mill”.

According to information from Greenpeace, a film recording by a Greenpeace researcher, who worked for several weeks as an employee at the Amazon Logistics Center in Vinson, shows that the mail order company is “in one place alone at least every week Less is sold in a truck. T-shirt New electrical goods through books “. The recording should be shown in the evening in the ARD magazine” Panorama “.

Legislation against waste of resources should prevent destruction

The environmental organization criticized the destruction of goods even though a law against this form of waste of resources came into force last year. The purpose of the so-called duty of care is to prevent the retained goods from being destroyed. But till now neither the duty of care is being carried out nor monitored by the authorities. The group took advantage of the fact that there is currently no legal ordinance on duty of care, so no penalties are imposed.

An Amazon spokesperson said that the company is performing its duty of care for the goods it sells. “We have implemented measures to avoid destruction of goods as much as possible,” he said. Amazon is working on a “no product if possible” submission.

“Only when we have no other choice do we write Recycling Or for energy recovery – or as a final option – for landfill “, the spokesperson explained. This route, however, is” the last and least attractive option – ecologically and economically. “In fact,” the number of products sold and shipped by Amazon that are actually disposed of must be “within the liquor limit”.

Donating is more expensive than Disposal

In addition, the company argues in a blog entry on the subject that donations in collaboration with non-profit organizations are an important approach – but companies are at a loss here. Because German tax law obligates companies to pay sales tax on the value of all donated goods – with the exception of spoiled food. Therefore it is often more expensive for companies in Germany to dispose of them than to donate goods.

Consumer expert Viola Wohlgemuth of Greenpeace criticized, however, that Amazon “relies solely on rapid sales and therefore considers space on the shelf more important than product”. This is a “climate-damaging waste of resources”. Wohlgemuth called on the federal environment minister Svenja Schultz (SPD) to take action. “Destroying new goods should become a criminal offense during this legislative period.”

Greenpeace had already documented in late 2019 that new items were regularly thrown at Vinson. This contributed to the fact that the Bundestag introduced new regulations for retailers in 2020 as part of reforms to the Recycling Management Act. According to the text of the law, the duty of care stipulates that “when delivering products, in relation to their return or return, to ensure that the products remain useful and are not worthless”.