Landfills and liquidation sales: what happens to the purchases you return?

This year, US consumers returned 20% of the items they ordered online, and the waste and environmental cost is high

The gifting is done. Some were successful, others less so – the wrong color, size, redundant, too impulsive, not suitable for re-gifting. US consumers return about 20% of all online purchases and the post-holiday period is when the massive, but often unseen, returns logistics industry – the reverse supply chain – goes into overdrive.

According to the National Retail Federation, US consumers returned more than $816bn worth of retail merchandise in 2022, up 7% from a record $761bn a year earlier, and more than the US defense budget.

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