Companies in the food, beauty, and apparel industries regularly purchase surplus products to avoid stockouts. While this may seem like a winning strategy at first, unsold overstock often results in significant financial losses for brands. With 25% of all U.S. stock ending up in landfills, excess inventory has become a major environmental problem. Gen Z entrepreneur Amrita Bhasin has founded Sotira to tackle this issue.
Growing Up Between Two Worlds
Like millions of Gen Zers around the world, Amrita grew up witnessing the problem of overstock firsthand. While she was raised in California, she often traveled to India with her family to visit her ancestral family town. It was here that Amrita saw her first landfill.
“I saw unsold overstock clothing piled up outside of warehouses, and I started to ask questions and figure out why there is so much clothing that does not get sold on the primary market.”
Companies had to rely on spreadsheets, phone calls, and other time-consuming practices, which meant that sending unsold inventory to landfills was often more convenient.
Over the years, Amrita became increasingly passionate about the reverse logistics space, which aims to give unsold products a new life by reintroducing them into the secondary market. However, she soon realized that this sector was highly inefficient due to outdated procedures.
Companies had to rely on spreadsheets, phone calls, and other time-consuming practices, which meant that sending unsold inventory to landfills was often more convenient. Amrita was determined to change this.
Turning Waste Into Opportunity
During her years at UC Berkeley, Amrita met Gary Kwong, with whom she shared her interest in e-commerce and logistics. In 2023, the two founded Sotira, a B2B platform using AI to automate the antiquated processes on which reverse logistics has relied for decades. The company raised $2 million in pre-seed funding and rerouted 5 million pounds of unsold inventory.
Sotira connects retailers, manufacturers, and brands with secondary-market buyers. Suppliers can easily upload their surplus inventory on the website, choose the best offer from a list of buyers, and let Sotira handle all the logistics.
This company works with brands in the health and wellness, food and beverage, and apparel sectors, and has helped businesses such as Nude Foods Market reduce their landfill waste to a tenth of what it used to be. Beverage brand Tru has collaborated with the platform to offload and monetize four truckloads of surplus sparkling water cans in less than one week, saving thousands of dollars in warehouse costs.
Over the past three years, Sotira has become a major player in the reverse logistics sector and has been awarded first place at both Shoptalk, the largest retail conference in the U.S., and the Reverse Logistics Conference and Expo, the world’s leading conference focused on overstock.
An $800 Billion Problem
Amrita believes most consumers do not have a clear picture of how big the secondary market truly is.
“If you’ve shopped at a discount store or if you’ve bought short-dated food and beverages for a discount, you’ve shopped in the secondary market. A lot of people have shopped in it and are not even aware of it.”
In the U.S. alone, reverse logistics is an $800 billion problem, with roughly 25% of all U.S. inventory remaining unsold. This amounts to 163 billion pounds of landfill waste each year.
The situation in the EU is also concerning. Food waste amounts to 60 million tonnes per year, about 130 kg per inhabitant, with an associated market value of €132 billion. Meanwhile, 40 million EU citizens cannot afford a quality meal every other day (European Parliament, 2025). In addition, between 4% and 9% of all textile products on the EU market are destroyed before use, amounting to approximately 264,000-594,000 tonnes of textiles each year (EEA, 2024).
The consequences for the environment are catastrophic. According to recent estimates, about 8-10% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions are generated by food loss and waste. This is costing the global economy $1 trillion annually (UNFCCC, 2024).
While companies like Sotira are now working to address the issue, many Gen Z consumers believe brands should be held accountable for their waste.
Sustainability and Gen Z
Apart from her role at Sotira, Amrita works as a Gen Z consultant for Fortune 500 companies. According to her, prioritizing sustainability has become a must for brands wanting to stay relevant in today’s market.
“A lot of companies do not completely understand how important sustainability is to Gen Z. Gen Z is the climate anxiety generation, where a lot of Gen Z grew up seeing the problem of climate firsthand.”
Amrita often reminds companies that Gen Zers are not afraid to hold them accountable, a claim supported by several studies. About 81% of Gen Z consumers have changed their purchasing decisions based on a brand’s actions and reputation, while 53% said they had participated in an economic boycott or would do so in the future (Thomson Reuters, 2025).
Over the past few years, hashtags such as #boycottzara, #boycottfastfashion, and #fastfashionsucks have become extremely popular on social media. Gen Zers have also launched several boycotts to hold companies accountable for their social commitments and to protest certain decisions.
In January 2025, a group of activists launched a boycott against Target after the company rolled back its diversity, equity, and inclusion program. This led Target CEO Michael Fiddelke to renew the company’s commitments. Similarly, in 2023, Starbucks consumers called for a boycott after the company sued Starbucks Workers United over a tweet calling for solidarity for Palestine. Starbucks lost $11 billion in market value in the months following these events.
As Gen Zers grow more wary of corporations, entrepreneurship is quickly emerging as an attractive alternative to corporate life.
Advice for Other Gen Z Entrepreneurs
Thanks to AI, aspiring entrepreneurs no longer need large teams or substantial funds to launch a business. Despite this, Amrita urges Gen Zers to watch out for the glamorization of Silicon Valley, reminding them that starting a company remains a major commitment.
“Startups are really hard, and I think there is a glamorization in the media. I would encourage people to potentially rethink that and recognize that you can do everything right and your company can still fail. Raising money is not necessarily a guarantee for success, and there are a lot of unexpected factors involved in building a company.”
Like many Gen Zers, Amrita no longer buys into the outdated narrative equating hard work with success. She instead advises young entrepreneurs to view failure as a real possibility when launching a business.
“In order to invest time, you have to be passionate about what you’re building. [It has to be] something that gets you to wake up in the morning. If it doesn’t work out, you are interested in knowing how to pivot.”
For Amrita, that passion has always been the reverse logistics space, a sector forecast to grow rapidly over the next few years as governments worldwide recognize the importance of the secondary market.
Conclusion
Raising money is not necessarily a guarantee for success, and there are a lot of unexpected factors involved in building a company.
In recent years, the state of California has passed Senate Bill 1383, requiring cities and counties to reduce their organic waste by 75% by 2025. In addition, under California’s Responsible Textile Recovery Act (SB 707), businesses in the textile industry will soon have to submit plans detailing their collection and return structures, recycling systems, and financing mechanisms.
With the reverse logistics market projected to grow from $823 billion in 2024 to $3.18 trillion by 2033, companies like Sotira may help hundreds of businesses finally move away from the culture of waste that has long dominated the market.
Amrita Bhasin
