THREAD: Ever wonder where your free online returns go? We ordered a bunch of products from Amazon, hid secret GPS trackers inside, and sent them back. Here’s where they went… 1/7

A pair of overalls went to an e-waste recycling and product destruction depot in Toronto. A representative said on hidden camera that they get tons of Amazon returns every week — sometimes as many as 3 to 5 truckloads. Amazon later told us it was sent there by mistake. 2/7

As for the other 11 returned items, it appears only four were resold by Amazon to new customers. Some were still in Amazon warehouses or in transit months later. 3/7

Amazon tells us that most of the time they resell, recycle or donate returned products, but that’s not always possible. The company won’t tell us how many items get a second life and how many end up being trashed. 4/7

And this problem with returns plagues all online retailers, not just Amazon.

We learned between 30 and 40 per cent of all online purchases are sent back. You may not realize it, but those “free” returns are actually costing the environment… 5/7

Online returns can clock a lot of mileage. For example, the toy blocks we returned travelled over 950 km before reaching a new buyer. That’s a huge carbon footprint. Now, think of that multiplied by millions of Canadian shoppers. 6/7

To learn more, watch our hidden camera and secret tracker investigation tonight at 8 p.m. on @CBC TV and Gem. 7/7