Study 145: Chanel Stops Shredding Unsold Goods: Circularity as Brand Sovereignty

A 2017 Hong Kong criminal trial disclosed that Chanel destroyed 10,000 to 20,000 products every six months in a single territory: the Archival Death Mandate by which luxury protects scarcity through the annihilation of its own surplus objects. Chanel now points to L'Atelier des Matières (2019) and Nevold (2025) as proof that unsold goods are recycled, not shredded, and the trade press files it as sustainability. OAC reads it differently. The pivot is contemporaneous with the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation, which bans destroying unsold goods, so the change is compliance-forced