Have you ever wondered what happens to products that aren’t sold or the items that you return to a store? It turns out, a lot of them end up in the trash. This week, Wirecutter Deputy Editor Annemarie Conte discusses her recent reporting on how and why stores throw away perfectly good products.

Annemarie takes us from the strip malls of Dallas-Fort Worth to the curbs of New York City, shadowing social media influencers Dumpster Diving Mama, GlamourDDive, and The Trash Walker who rescue everything from kids' toys to slashed Coach bags. We dive into why retailers often find it cheaper to destroy and toss items than to donate or recycle them, the environmental life cycle of these items and what companies (and consumers) can do to move toward a more circular economy.

This episode covers:

The economics of retail waste: Why it is often more profitable for major retailers to throw away perfectly good products—and even intentionally destroy them—than to donate or liquidate them.
The world of dumpster diving influencers: A look at the community of people who film their "hauls" to expose corporate waste and re-sell goods that are headed for the landfill.
The overproduction problem: How the sheer volume of goods has overwhelmed the logistics chain, creating a secondary market where items are sold by the pallet or simply discarded because they are too expensive to re-process.
Potential solutions for a circular economy: The environmental impact of overproduction and how legislative changes, like those seen in the EU, could encourage companies to stop destroying unsold goods and find more sustainable alternatives.

Additional reading:

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The Wirecutter Show is executive produced by Rosie Guerin and produced by Abigail Keel.Engineering support from Maddy Masiello and Nick Pitman. Episodes are mixed by Catherine Anderson, Efim Shapiro, Rowan Niemisto, Sophia Lanman, and Sonia Herrero. Original music by Dan Powell, Marion Lozano, Elisheba Ittoop, and Diane Wong. Wirecutter’s deputy publisher and general manager is Cliff Levy. Ben Frumin is Wirecutter’s editor-in-chief. Hosted by Rosie Guerin, Caira Blackwell and Christine Cyr Clisset.

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Why Do Stores Throw Away Perfectly Good Products?

The Wirecutter Show