British lawmakers demand meeting with Amazon after video shows products being destroyed

Millions of unsold items at an Amazon warehouse in Scotland were destroyed, and now British lawmakers are demanding answers, ITV News reported.

An investigation by the United Kingdom news outlet shows footage of unsold or returned items including laptops, smart TVs and hair dryers being placed into boxes marked “destroy.” ITV News reports that they are then hauled away by trucks and unloaded into recycling centers or landfills. 

According to a former employee that ITV News spoke with, the person said they had a target to get rid of around 130,000 items per week.

Labour Party Members of Parliament Siobhain McDonagh, Julie Elliott and Darren Jones are asking to meet with Amazon to understand why so many items are being destroyed.

“Completely appalling from @AmazonUK when so many families on the wrong side of the digital divide could have been connected to the internet during lockdown,” McDonagh tweeted.

Additionally, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he would look into the matter further.

In an interview with ITV News, he said the investigation “sounds incredible to me. An indictment of a consumerist society, if it’s as you say. We will look into it.”

Amazon UK Country manager John Boumphrey told ITV News before he knew of the news outlet’s story that there is an “extremely small” number of items that get destroyed by the company.

An Amazon spokesperson told The Hill in a statement, “We are working towards a goal of zero product disposal and our priority is to resell, donate to charitable organisations or recycle any unsold products. No items are sent to landfill in the UK. As a last resort, we will send items to energy recovery, but we’re working hard to drive the number of times this happens down to zero.”