First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has been asked to reconsider the government’s Amazon spend after it was revealed the firm was destroying millions of unsold items.

Scottish Greens Co-leader and MSP Lorna Slater grilled Sturgeon during First Minister’s Questions after revelations in an ITV investigation last week that the e-commerce giant is destroying millions of unsold stock items at its Dunfermline warehouses every year.

As well as the firm destroying unsold items that could be sent to people in need in Scotland, Slater also noted that millions of pounds of public money are being spent on Amazon Web Services which could be going to small firms struggling to recover from the pandemic.

The Scottish Government has more than doubled its spending on Amazon Web Services during the pandemic, according to a recent FOI request. Last year saw a boost of more than £3m to mitigate the negative effects of the pandemic.

Amazon was caught out last month after it was revealed it had paid no corporation tax on its European sales last year despite its annual revenue reaching almost €44 billion. An Amazon spokesperson said that the firm “pays all the taxes required” in every country it operates in.

Slater commented: “This is not the first time Scottish Greens have challenged the government on the levels of subsidy given to Amazon.

“As well as avoiding tax and the appalling treatment of workers, we now know this company would rather scrap millions of new items rather than give them to people in need.

“This is a time when public money should be going to small companies and those who need to recover from the pandemic, not to a mega-corporation whose net profits were over $20bn in 2020 alone.

“At the heart of this obscene level of waste is an economy that puts a disposable, throwaway culture above the needs of people and the planet. That’s why we need a recovery that enshrines the circular economy in robust laws that will prevent such needless volumes of waste in the future.”

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Despite Amazon’s recent negative press, the retail giant says it intends to support the UK in the future. In April, the firm announced it would invest in a Scottish wind farm as part of a major new renewables push.

Amazon says it is also bringing 10,000 new permanent job roles to the UK over the next year as it opens corporate offices and moves some web services and operations networks in Edinburgh.