Amazon Italia has channeled over 600,000 surplus products worth more than €8M into the hands of vulnerable families through an expanded donation network operating across the country—an initiative that transforms retail inefficiency into household relief for residents navigating Italy's economic pressures.
The scale of the program, known as Amazon Dona, reaches 35,000 families via partnerships with 1,400 nonprofit organizations, distributing goods that range from canned food and toiletries to children's toys and school supplies. The system recovers inventory that cannot be resold—damaged packaging, incomplete multipacks, near-expiry items—and reroutes them before they become landfill.
Why This Matters
• Direct household impact: Essentials like hygiene products and baby goods flow to families facing financial strain, bypassing the high retail markup.
• Legal compliance: The program aligns with Italy's 2016 Anti-Waste Law (Law 166/2016), which mandates waste reduction across production and distribution phases.
• Logistics included: Amazon provides dedicated vans and drivers to transport donations, removing the burden from smaller charities.
How the System Actually Works
The operational backbone relies on Fondazione Valore and Centro Five, which function as regional logistics aggregators. Products are sorted at Amazon's distribution hubs, then moved to intermediary warehouses that coordinate final delivery to frontline nonprofits. This hub-and-spoke model allows the program to scale beyond what individual charities could manage with their own fleets.
Unlike traditional charity drives where donors drop off goods at collection points, this system pulls inventory directly from Amazon's supply chain. A multipack of diapers with torn shrink-wrap or a box of cereal with a dented corner gets flagged for donation rather than disposal. The selection process happens inside the warehouse, not after the product has left commercial circulation.
The transport service is a critical piece: Amazon covers the cost of moving pallets from its facilities to nonprofit distribution centers, which means smaller organizations in rural provinces can participate without needing their own trucks or fuel budgets.
What This Means for Residents
For families enrolled with participating nonprofits, the program translates into monthly access to goods that would otherwise strain household budgets. A jar of baby food, a pack of batteries, a box of crayons—small-ticket items that add up quickly when purchased retail. The inventory mix also includes shelf-stable groceries, which matter in a country where food prices have climbed steadily over the past two years.
The 1,400 nonprofit partners include food banks, community centers, and family support services spread across all 20 regions. This geographic spread means urban and rural households alike can tap into the supply, though availability depends on each nonprofit's storage capacity and distribution schedule.
For those not currently connected to a nonprofit, the practical path is to contact local Caritas chapters, Banco Alimentare branches, or municipal social services to inquire about eligibility. Most programs require proof of income or referral from social workers.
The Anti-Waste Law That Made This Possible
Italy's Law 166/2016, commonly called the Gadda Law, created the regulatory framework that encourages corporate donations by simplifying tax treatment and clarifying liability. Before 2016, businesses faced bureaucratic friction when trying to donate surplus—unclear rules around expiration dates, ambiguous tax deductions, and concerns about legal responsibility if donated goods caused harm.
The law resolved this by distinguishing between "best before" and "use by" dates, allowing donations of products past the former as long as they remain safe. It also extended fiscal incentives to companies that donate, making recovery financially attractive compared to paying disposal fees.
Results have been measurable: Banco Alimentare reported a 390% increase in recovered surplus in the years following the law's passage. In 2018 alone, the nonprofit network collected over 7,600 tons of food from supermarkets, plus 1.1M pharmaceuticals and 700,000 meals from institutional kitchens.
The law positioned Italy ahead of most European peers in waste policy. Other EU countries have since studied the Gadda framework as a model, though implementation varies widely.
Broader Context: Who Else Is Doing This
Amazon's program sits within a growing ecosystem of corporate donation initiatives. Pam Panorama, a major supermarket chain, has donated over 16,700 tons of food since 2020 through its Banco Alimentare partnership. Rovagnati, a meat processor, contributed 19.3 tons in 2022. Even smaller players like Biova Project have found creative angles, brewing beer from surplus bread to give waste a commercial second life.
Across Europe, platforms like FoodCloud in Ireland and FoodFair, which operates continentally, connect surplus sources with charities. The European Federation of Food Banks (FEBA) coordinates much of this activity, standardizing protocols so cross-border donation becomes feasible.
Italy's food industry donates nearly 140,000 tons annually according to research presented at TUTTOFOOD 2026, with bakeries donating at rates 2.5 times higher than other sectors. The GDO (large retail) segment contributes another 48,000 tons, valued at €229M.
The Circular Economy Angle
Amazon frames the program as part of a circular economy strategy, which in practice means keeping products in use rather than incinerating or landfilling them. The company also runs Amazon Seconda Mano and Amazon Renewed, which resell used and refurbished goods—another layer of the reuse hierarchy.
In 2025, Amazon and its third-party sellers donated 35M products across Europe, including many customer returns. The scale suggests that logistics, not inventory, is the limiting factor for most donation programs.
The environmental logic is straightforward: producing a new tube of toothpaste requires energy, raw materials, and transport. If a tube with a crumpled box can serve a household, the embedded carbon and resource cost avoid duplication.
Limitations and Unanswered Questions
While the numbers are substantial, the program does not address why so much inventory becomes unsellable in the first place. Packaging damage, overstock, and returns are symptoms of supply chain inefficiencies that the donation system mitigates but does not eliminate.
The 1,400 nonprofit partners must also have the capacity to store, sort, and distribute donations—requirements that exclude smaller grassroots groups lacking warehouse space or refrigeration. The hub-based model favors established organizations with existing logistics, which can inadvertently centralize aid distribution.
Transparency around product selection criteria remains limited. Amazon has not disclosed what percentage of damaged inventory gets donated versus discarded, nor whether certain product categories are prioritized over others.
What Comes Next
The program's expansion follows a decade of refinement. Amazon launched Donazioni di Logistica in 2021, automating the donation process for third-party sellers and moving €10M worth of goods between 2023 and September 2024. The current iteration scales that model to Amazon's own inventory.
Future growth will likely depend on nonprofit capacity-building—whether charities can expand warehousing and distribution to absorb more volume—and on regulatory stability. The Gadda Law has bipartisan support, but ongoing debates around extending tax breaks or broadening product eligibility could shift incentives.
For now, the system functions as a release valve for retail overstock and a supplement for household budgets, operating within the constraints of existing logistics and nonprofit infrastructure.
