conuly

When I worked at a soap/lotion/hand gel factory (largest supplier of Bath and Body Works products in North America, if you believe the hype), things that were misproduced or otherwise unsaleable (anything from a bad or miscolored batch to a forklift backing into a load, rupturing a box or two and causing leaks - nothing essentially wrong with the product itself, just a manufacturing or shipping error) had to be destroyed. Liquids dumped out into bins, bottles crushed, caps removed. Nothing could be salvaged, nothing was to be donated. I suggested donation or even having a "company store" where the bad items could be offered at reduced cost to employees - may cut down on theft, may recover some of the lost cost.

The answer was, it's not technically our product to donate or sell, we're only licensed to produce it for the retailer and as such have no right to do anything else with any part of the production, from individual components to final items. Anything not shippable must be destroyed. I didn't like it, but there wasn't anything they could - or would - do about it.