I worked in marketing early in my career, and this is actually a very common practice (not saying it makes it right, but it's definitely not just Amazon). Usually it's not done out of a desire to waste things or a hatred of the poor, but rather to protect against brand dilution and also to protect sales. If you could just wait until a product "expires" and then go get it for free somewhere, that would harm sales. Also, if a premium brand (say Apple) couldn't sell a certain product and so donated a bunch, then the Apple logo (which many people view as a status symbol) would be diluted. You also can't just store stuff in perpetuity as it takes time and money to do that. The only logical choice (as Mr. Spock would say) is to destroy the items.
Consider a real scenario that recurs annually. Big game, let's say the Super Bowl. One side will win. At the end of the game on the way out of the stadium, there will be a lot of t-shirts for sale that declare "Team X Super Bowl LIII Champions!" Those shirts weren't printed on the spot, which means there are also a number of shirts with the losing team proclaimed as winner. Those obviously can't be sold. Back in the day they would be donated to third world areas, but then some of those shirts started finding their way onto eBay and sports collector sites, causing massive problems between the various entities involved in the manufacturing, sale, and licensing. As a result they now just trash the unsalable shirts.
I'm not saying it's right, in fact I find it disgusting. I grew up in a family that reused cereal boxes and almost any other container, particular glass. Although I'm not that diligent anymore I still have that instinctive desire.
However, there is a lot more to this practice than this (one-sided) article presents.
This is why all voluntary environmental actions will fail. You can virtue signal and scold all you want, but when it comes to amoral corporations, economic incentives are required.
Customers buy what corporations produce. If corporations didn’t produce a billion different widgets people wouldn’t buy them because they wouldn’t exist.
They even charge venders for the service of destroying the items. But if you want you can pay amazon to ship it back for you. This was true when I dabbled in book sales.
Consider a real scenario that recurs annually. Big game, let's say the Super Bowl. One side will win. At the end of the game on the way out of the stadium, there will be a lot of t-shirts for sale that declare "Team X Super Bowl LIII Champions!" Those shirts weren't printed on the spot, which means there are also a number of shirts with the losing team proclaimed as winner. Those obviously can't be sold. Back in the day they would be donated to third world areas, but then some of those shirts started finding their way onto eBay and sports collector sites, causing massive problems between the various entities involved in the manufacturing, sale, and licensing. As a result they now just trash the unsalable shirts.
I'm not saying it's right, in fact I find it disgusting. I grew up in a family that reused cereal boxes and almost any other container, particular glass. Although I'm not that diligent anymore I still have that instinctive desire.
However, there is a lot more to this practice than this (one-sided) article presents.