The convenience economy: Product flows and GHG emissions of returned apparel in the EU

Each year, consumers return billions of new products to retailers. Despite growing concern over product destruction, post-return product flows are not well understood, and the full lifecycle environmental impacts of returns remain largely unknown. Building on a unique dataset covering over 630k returned apparel items in the EU, we map the flow of returned products under sustainable and conventional management practices, and quantify the full lifecycle impacts associated with returns using two illustrative apparel case studies. We find that 22%-44% of returned products never reach another consumer. Moreover, the GHG emissions associated with the production and distribution of unused returns can be 2–16 times higher than all post-return transport, packaging, and processing emissions combined. Our findings suggest that the environmental impacts eCommerce and specifically online apparel, may be systematically underestimated when returns are not accounted for, and highlight the urgent need to promote circular management practices that maximize use of returned products.