(WTXL) - The holiday gifts you plan on returning have a good chance of ending up in a landfill.
According to Optoro, a firm that helps retailers manage returns, returned merchandise adds about 5 billion pounds of trash to landfills every year.
Americans return about $380 billion worth of goods every year.
Optoro estimates only half of returns make their way back to the shelves.
The others are often damaged or their boxes are open.
Many end up being re-sold to secondary retailers or just tossed away.
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