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from the to-the-dump-to-the-dump-to-the-dump-dump-dump dept.
The CBC's "The Current" has a story about how online returns are frequently sent to the dump
'It's pretty staggering': Returned online purchases often sent to landfill, journalist's research reveals
Do you order different sizes of clothing online, knowing you can return the one that doesn't fit?
Did you know the ones you return are sometimes sent straight to landfill?
Online shopping has created a boom in perfectly good products ending up in dumpsters and landfills, according to Adria Vasil, an environmental journalist and managing editor of Corporate Knights magazine.
Amazon has faced accusations of destroying returned items in both France and Germany.
The issue also affects unsold products. Burberry admitted in 2018 that it had incinerated £90 million worth of clothing and accessories in the previous five years. The company stopped the policy last year after a public outcry.
Why? You're returning something that's new and fine?
It actually costs a lot of companies more money to put somebody on the product, to visually eyeball it and say, Is this up to standard, is it up to code? Is this going to get us sued? Did somebody tamper with this box in some way? And is this returnable? And if it's clothing, it has to be re-pressed and put back in a nice packaging. And for a lot of companies, it's just not worth it. So they will literally just incinerate it, or send it to the dumpster
So when you order 3 sizes "to be sure you get the one you want", two of them are probably going to the dump. Not very environmentally friendly. .
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Saturday December 14 2019, @09:58AM (8 children)
Fair point. In my roommate's case it was a cheap piece of junk keyboard we had to throw out ourselves, but I could definitely see that happening.
Another point in favor of returns is problem diagnosis so a company can figure out what went wrong; material defect, production lines, shipping, user error, etc...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by driverless on Saturday December 14 2019, @10:52AM (7 children)
There is a contributory problem, pointed out by the original article: With no-questions-asked returns, people will buy one of each knowing they can later return everything except the one they want. The first time I encountered this I was rather surprised, but as I ran into more and more people who did it I realised it was an inevitable outcome of making returns too easy to do. Variants exist for other companies as well, e.g. the Fry's Electronic Test Equipment Short-term Rental scheme where you buy an expensive item of test equipment, use it to debug whatever it is you're having trouble with, and then return it for a refund.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by deadstick on Saturday December 14 2019, @02:19PM (1 child)
...aka the Big Screen TV for the Superbowl scheme.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Sunday December 15 2019, @04:23AM
Has anyone ever used it for a Tons of Expensive Shit to Impress Classmates at the Reunion scheme?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by dry on Saturday December 14 2019, @05:43PM (1 child)
For a while Canadian Tire had a lending program for automotive tools, deposit the price of the tool and borrow it rather then buying it, using it once and returning it. I needed a pickle fork for a one time use and borrowing it worked fine, especially for something that you take a sledge hammer to. Unluckily the borrowing thing seems to have gone away, I guess they figured there was more money to be made selling the tools even with the returns.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @05:49PM
I bought a $15 power steering pulley puller but it broke after few years use. Lifetime warranty! The tool maker had redesigned it into a $135 kit but kept the same part number. Score!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 14 2019, @07:11PM
"the Fry's Electronic Test Equipment Short-term Rental scheme where you buy an expensive item of test equipment, use it to debug whatever it is you're having trouble with, and then return it for a refund."
That's interesting. A lot of places like Home Depot make money by renting out expensive power tools. This is especially useful for contractors that have a wide variety of jobs over the years that require a wide array of tools and the contractor doesn't want to purchase and store every possible tool they may need for every possible job that comes their way. This can also have certain advantages over trying to rent the tools over the Internet and have them shipped back and fourth each time as well.
Perhaps places like Fry's Electronics can do a similar rental scheme for very expensive electronic equipment? Not sure if they already do so or if there is a market for it like there is for power tools but if enough people are purchasing and returning expensive items for one time use perhaps there is a rental niche for electronics out there. Of course they would then have to give people incentive to rent instead of purchase and return (?), perhaps they can find ways to adjust their return policy accordingly (charge a restocking fee if the same person repeatedly buys and returns items too many times within a given timeframe?)?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Saturday December 14 2019, @10:09PM (1 child)
Amazon even actively encourages that behavior in Prime members now with Prime Wardrobe [amazon.com] which tells customers they can order multiple items of clothes, shoes, or accessories to try on for a week without being charged (!), then return anything they don't want to buy using the included pre-paid shipping box.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday December 16 2019, @07:07PM
That seems crazy, but I guess that's a workaround for the inability to try something on before you buy it.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"