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The English proverb one man's (or woman's) trash is another man's treasure certainly makes the case for donating items that are no longer needed, especially if those items are new.
Amazon, the giant eCommerce world leader believes that too. They announced in a company blog that they are launching Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) Donations, a new program beginning on September 1, 2019, that will donate eligible new and returned stock from third-party sellers in the US and UK to charity.
This new program comes on the tails of recent reports of Amazon trashing unwanted items including a documentary on French TV that estimated that Amazon destroyed over 3 million products in France last year according to CNBC.
FBA is designed to help the environment by reducing the amount of material going into the trash.
CNBC reported that In an email to third-party sellers, Amazon wrote: “This program will reduce the number of products sent to landfills and instead help those in need.”
Amazon's new program will work with charity partners and manage the logistics to make it easy for its independent sellers according to the company. The donation option will be the default option for all the company's sellers when they decide to get rid of unsold and wanted products in Amazon warehouses. Sellers will have the option to opt out of the program.
The donations will be distributed in the US by Good360, an organization that works with product philanthropy and purposeful giving that Amazon already uses for their company donations, according to the blog. In the UK, Amazon will work with charities that include the Salvation Army, Newlife, and Barnardo's.
“We know getting products into the hands of those who need them transforms lives and strengthens local communities,” said Alice Shobe, director, Amazon in the Community. “We are delighted to extend this program to sellers who use our fulfillment services.”
Sellers who spoke to CNBC said that the new program makes it cheaper to donate the inventory because amazon charged 50 cents to return products and only 15 cents to destroy it. Sellers routinely took the cheaper option.
Now, the unwanted inventory will be donated to people who can really use them. This is a triple win for Amazon, for the sellers, and for the people who will be receiving the treasures. Hopefully Amazon will scale this new program worldwide.
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