Press reports of returns being destroyed keep resurfacing time and again.
For the revelations in a current case, a researcher from a well-known environmental organisation spent several weeks working as an employee in the logistics centre of a well-known online mail order firm and documented the transactions.
Using what are termed “Destroy Stations”, new goods are pre-sorted by the truckload for destruction, since it is “not worth it” to refurbish the returns, such as in this case t-shirts, books or brand-new electrical articles.
The environmental organisation’s demand shows just how heated the debate on this topic has meanwhile become: “The destruction of new goods must become a punishable offence in this legislative period!”
The problem arises, for instance, with goods that are in a low price segment, as the labour costs of reconditioning often exceed the value of the product, or the margins are too low.
take-e-way offers a fast and individually tailored solution for returns handling, repairs and relabelling in co-operation with a partner company from Hamburg.
Experience shows that from a sales price of approx. 60 euros per product, it can certainly be economically worthwhile to consider refurbishment.
Moreover, goods often get stuck in customs because, for instance, CE marks are incorrectly affixed, operating instructions are missing or certain warnings have been ignored or forgotten. Again, it is not always necessary to destroy entire batches owing to missing or incorrect markings. Re-labelling with legally required markings can be an economical and, above all, ecological alternative.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Michaela Lepke by calling +49/40/750687-135 or sending an e-mail to lepke@take-e-way.de.
