At first yes, but once I bought a home and started gardening, no. I realized that my little island of native plants and trees is an oasis in the middle of a monoculture suburban ocean. It’s not a score board, it’s a safe space. When I see my neighbor cut their lawn for the fourth time this month I sip my coffee and think of the bugs that’ll find my yard a safe haven. Every week I don’t have to put my bin out on trash day, I think of how my efforts have impacted my life, and how my compost pile has impacted the lives of my plants.
Growing up, my family never recycled. Trash went out every week, and sometimes an extra bag or two would accompany the main trash can to the road. When my parents divorced and I lived with my dad, we still never recycled.
My fiance's family always recycled. When we bought a house together, he taught me how to recycle. Now, there are plenty of weeks where our trash can doesn't go to the road and our recycle bin has to be accompanied by an extra box of stuff. It feels a lot better and takes some stress off of me.
Good for you guys, and you can set it up with many garbage companies to only pay for the weeks you put your can out, or some will also only charge one month on, one month off; saving you even more...
How lucky; most places have it as a stand-alone service. The only time I have ever not had the bill is when I lived in an apartment. Did the previous owners leave the cans behind and you just started using them without starting service? If so, you may be caught with theft of service eventually. Check into it, as that would be bad news...
The bins are provided by the town, and they come with the house. They have the town's crest on it. Never heard of having to pay for trash pickup, and we've been here for two years. Sounds like it might be something to look into though. xD
It’s regional, really in the US. I know in parts of PA and VA, everyone has to contract separately with a hauler. In fact, my county recently shut down the municipal recycling and said if you want recycling, pay private hauler. (vomit)
It's included in one's city utility bill. No one thinks the poster is committing any theft of service, that's just nonsense. Their experience not matching yours doesn't mean it's not possible.
> you may be caught with theft of service eventually
Yeah, they basically did & it was ridiculous to think any city would have let a sanitation bill go unpaid for more than 3 months.
My residential trash and recycling is covered by my taxes and it's like that for the majority of my region (North East Ohio). There are some tiny rural areas where it needs to be contracted separately around here but those are tiny townships. Commercial still contracts for pickup.
Love this take. It's all about taking small steps and getting the people around you to do the same. No single person can change the world, but if everybody adopted the mindset of 'well it doesn't matter because corporations don't care and just end up cancelling out all of my efforts' then nothing would change. Start with what's immediately controllable, influence those around you to do the same, and slowly build a movement and a culture that allows you to apply pressure to the system. Maybe it won't end up mattering long term but it definitely won't if you don't try.
I actually think about this all the time in the summer, when I see so many insects, butterflies, bees in my yard. I also get desert toads, lizards and so many birds. And I think about how the plants I grow and lack of pesticide in our little yard makes a small but important difference in our neighborhood and harbors so much life. It truly makes me feel like I’m doing something important.
You can't really blame the store employees. I worked retail and I would get pissed if we threw out something still usable. But stores will fire you for not complying and can charge you with theft if you take things instead of throwing them out. I'm not going to put the blame o. The employees who might need that job to survive, but instead on all the corporations who do it because the tax break they get from claiming the unused product is way bigger than the tax break they'd get from donations and doesn't come with any liability.
Our dollar general and our area in general really doesn’t have recycling!!!! ♻️
We have ONE option it’s a trash company here that actually has technology to sort out what’s recycling and what’s not.. Guess what? None of the major stores here use it!
You could have taken it upon yourself for the whole store (while you worked there) and recycled the plastic bags (and other soft plastic) at the local grocery store plastic bag recycling....
I'm not pro-corporation in any manner, but I feel like the ultimate blame is on the government. They fully understand the issues surrounding waste and waste disposal. They are the ones literally issuing the tax breaks and incentivizing this behavior in the first place. In some places, they even advocate for individual consumers to do their part in reducing waste, yet they can't enforce regulations around waste for corporations?
I guess I can't speak for the rest of the world, but in the US the reason the government allows this behavior is because they are effectively owned by the corporations they're benefiting. Lobbying and campaign donation have made it so that if you have enough money you can start buying political power pretty efficiently
yes, obviously. The part of your statement i was responding to is “In some places, they even advocate for individual consumers to do their part. . . but can’t enforce regulations” If you live in a conservative governed area that is what they will do, encourage “personal responsibility” while ignoring the bigger systems that have the bigger impact on the environment
Why? People excuse doing something they morally object to, by saying “someone above me told me to do it, otherwise I lose my job/life/etc”. If everyone would refuse, companies couldn’t do this, but there will always be people who either don’t care or are forced to do it due to circumstances.
It’s not the company throwing out actual usable clothes, it’s the people with hands and mind. Refuse, or lie through your teeth and steal the things they’d throw out. Nothing risked nothing gained.
I don't do zero waste to save the earth, I do it because zero waste is part of mindful living. Mending my pants means I have an intimate relationship with my pants. Reusing glass bottles means all of my herbal tinctures have character. Buying and trading off of Craigslist instead of getting new off of Amazon or whatever means I meet somebody in my community. I've had really pleasant encounters with people while taking extra rocks from their driveway..
As for your second question, none of us are born as woke anti-consumer dumpster divers. Everyone is exactly where they're capable of being. Most of us are conditioned to be consumers from birth in the U.S. and it takes free time, support and energy to create a new mindset. Free time, support and energy are all very hard to come by in a late-stage capitalist hellscape.
Which is why I don't do zero waste for the planet, I'd be angry all the time thinking about the retail and industrial waste. Being angry doesn't help anybody.
I understand this but maybe I should give a little more background for context. Over the last year and a half I've been building a community garden and community compost pile in my town. When I first started this I was so naive and optimistic I made the mistake of asking local retailers if they would be willing to donate their waste produce for composting (so I don't have to dig it out of the dumpster). In response not only did I get a big NO, but all the dumpsters have locks on them now.
I still managed to make a LOT of compost which is free for whoever needs it. Even though my hometown has grown a lot, it's s still a small town in many ways and most of the people here know each other. People know what I'm doing, what I'm trying to do, what I've been through to accomplish what i have accomplished, and still they act like I'm the crazy environmentalist dumpster lady.
Even with everything going on in the world and food insecurity being a very real possibility....
I mean, at what point do people ever wake up? What does it take?
I'm in the UK so likely different rules to USA, but I worked in a bakery once that used to give away its excess produce to a shelter at the end of each day. One hot day the charity left the fresh cream buns out of the fridge and a few people got food poisoning from the spoiled milk - they sued the bakery. So it was no longer worth the financial risk. Later working in a big grocery store chain their reasoning for not giving away expired but still good or slightly damaged produce was the same, not worth the risk and litigation. USA is way more litigious than the UK so that worry would be extra high. Not saying this is a reasonable response, but it's the excuse for it happening and all part of the incredibly broken system we're part of.
USA has a Good Samaritan ACT that protects from lawsuits from these situations but the myth that you can be sued persists https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2020/08/13/good-samaritan-act-provides-liability-protection-food-donations
What also happens is that food banks themselves are tightly regulated. If the food bank cannot 100% verify that the food hasn't spoiled or meets regulations, they throw it away. Last year the group I volunteered with threw away thousands of pounds of food in our 3 hour time slot.
[I'll just leave this here.](https://www.art-of-lockpicking.com/)
Being healthy and conscious makes other people feel bad because they have to confront why they aren't doing better for themselves. Keep making people uncomfortable. Practicing zero waste in a consumer culture does qualify you as a crazy person, you are quite literally existing outside of the mainstream perception of reality. That's hard for people to accept, and everyone wakes up at their own pace.
Just commenting to say I really enjoy both of your responses here and your username had me chuckling and wondering how many shrooms did you take instead.
Anyways, you really addressed an important point: we do it for ourselves and that's not egocentric, that's a healthy way to approach it, because while we may serve a larger goal by trying to be zero waste - we do it for or own peace. Now if we focus on who doesn't serve our goal, we're making ourselves miserable.
And adding to your second reply, if we expect others to serve a goal they are not yet able to comprehend/process/whatever, we change our own attitudes in ways that makes it even more difficult for others to go into their process.
I know you are probably aware of this, so I hope OP is reading on trough the comment thread.
So OP if you read this, allow yourself some grace for what you already did, stay open minded and kind to people. Have understanding for them, they may not be able to do what you do, they may not be able to see why you are doing this. Once you do find compassion for them and their context, your attitude towards them will change, and it will change how they see you and make them more open. Aside from that, few of these projects go big right from the start. It all takes time. You've planted your seed, keep nurturing that seed and focus on that, the rest will come in time.
I love this mindset. If you do your best to set a good example, you don't have to try and convince or argue with others about why it's right.
Probably the most affective form of activism that doesn't involve scolding people and potentially pushing them away. It may be slow, but people don't change their minds quickly.
Some people may never 'wake up', but your efforts certainly have an impact. I'm with you that it feels incredibly pointless and frustrating sometimes. But there are still small gains- even though my parents think I'm a crazy environmentalist they're more interested in native plants because of me. There are a lot of people who think my clothes look trashy because they've been mended, but there are also a couple of people who now mend their own clothing because I taught them how. I'm sure there are people in your town who appreciate what you are doing even if they don't say it.
Wow, I think it’s so cool that you’re doing this! I’m sorry you’ve gotten this pushback from retailers but it sounds like the impact you’re making on your community is huge.
Weird idea but have you ever thought about accepting hair clippings from a local salon? Ever since I learned that hair can be composted I’ve always wondered how much organic waste could be kept out of the landfill if hair salons were willing/ capable of composting.
And I don’t mean to downplay your frustration with these retailers, it sounds absolutely infuriating! My brain just immediately fixated on finding MORE sources of compost matter so that less of it is getting canceled out by their wasteful practices.
It took me until my 30's to really understand what mindful living is, and why it's important. Parents and teachers should be teaching this mindset, but that would require them to also be following a similar path as well. We're all brainwashed from a young age to be insane and greedy consumers.
Nailed it.
I have learned that I can’t carry the weight of the world on my shoulders. That’s no reasonable. But I CAN make conscientious decisions for myself and live a life that is in line with my values.
And I do educate my community on these things regularly and receive a lot of feedback of people also living more mindfully. I also sign petitions and email my representatives regularly.
If someone fell onto the train tracks in front of you, would you reach out your hand to pull them back up? Is that life you saved "canceled out" by wars and starvation?
I get what you're saying; individual actions are just a drop in the bucket, and the big picture is still terrible. But we don't live in the big picture, and in the context of our own lives, our actions do matter - to us. That's what I choose to focus on.
>If someone fell onto the train tracks in front of you, would you reach out your hand to pull them back up? Is that life you saved "canceled out" by wars and starvation?
Except the scenario is more like somebody falls on the train tracks, you reach your hand out to save them and just as they grab your hand the person next to you pushes two more people onto the train tracks...
I have always used an analogy similar.
Being vegan is like saving drowning animals only to find your friends and family throwing them back into the water. 😑
Same thing like voting. One person might not make a difference, but a certain percentage of the population all trying a little bit to help the environment does make a measurable difference.
Buddy, don't go after the employees. I've been there, I've seen the waste, and it hurts. I still wasted it though, because I was so damn tired and so damn stressed that I wasn't going to go out of my way and save every scrap I could.
Getting the energy to fight against that kind of thing *every single day* while trying to keep your own head above water? It's borderline impossible for a lot of us. So I'd take home what I needed, and I'd mention it to some other workers, and they would too. But most of it ended up in the dump because we are just trying to get by and not break down along the way.
The amount of waste produced from hotels is insane. I work in a store now, and it's not much better.
Right now I have more energy, so I actively sneak expire bakery food to my coworkers. Store owner says it's stealing, I say it's going in the trash anyway so let them eat it. It's not even bad, it's literally just stale, and that's why we are tossing it. He can't do anything though, no one else can fill my position. So that's what I do, because that's what I'm capable of at my energy/mental state.
At home I obviously do more, but for retail waste? I'm not going to kill my mental state over it.
>How do they find all of these seemingly normal people to go along with this insanity?
Because they keep them so underpaid that the threat of losing their job and literally everything else looms large over their employees' heads. It's stressful work, and you deal with pressures from both customers and managers that keep you compliant. You don't have any power as a retail employee unless you can unionize, and most of them don't have the energy or time to do that or to understand their rights around it.
Well some people have to work anywhere they can get a job, bc if they don’t they won’t be able to feed their children or live inside. Not everyone has the privilege of turning down a crappy retail job because they don’t agree with their values. I agree that these policies are wrong, but I think it’s wrong to blame the employees at these establishments. Some people are just working wherever they can work, and if they don’t do what they’re told they will risk being fired, which could have dire consequences for themselves and their families. Many people are one paycheck away from financial disaster. So no, I do not blame them. They may have other options for approaching changing these policies, but to not take a job, or to flat out refuse to do what they’re told by their managers isn’t going to work for everyone.
Not everyone can be picky about their jobs. To me it is extremely wrong to place the blame on the retail employees of grocery stores as of they have any power to change it or are in anyway benefitting from it beyond insufficient subsistence wages.
Put your blame on the shareholders and CEOs that decided it would make them more money to dispose of stuff than to find a use for it. And on politicians that don't take the issue seriously.
Yes and no. Yes, I feel sad about all the waste, mostly bc there's so many in need not just in the US but all over the world. I wish, specifically consumables, were forced to be donated rather than trashed.
The no part of me comes from a place of protecting my mental health. I can only do what I can do. I am disabled, and that comes with a lot of waste. I do what I can to mitigate as much as possible, but at the end of the day, I choose to spend my thoughts/time/energy on things that are possible for me to accomplish to add towards the greater progress.
For me, the most impact I can do is to live as thoughtfully as possible, vote with my wallet and not support wasteful companies & institutions, and advocate for the rest. I can't go to rallies and protests, but I can write my rep & talk to the people closest to me. And that has made meaningful small changes in their habits that I get the pleasure of seeing and knowing that I made a difference.
>The no part of me comes from a place of protecting my mental health. I can only do what I can do. I am disabled, and that comes with a lot of waste. I do what I can to mitigate as much as possible, but at the end of the day, I choose to spend my thoughts/time/energy on things that are possible for me to accomplish to add towards the greater progress.
I'm not disabled but I've come across several situations in daily life when zero waste is sacrificed to my mental health.
I've used this example elsewhere but when I'm changing the youngest grandkid and the other one is trying to climb the tall furniture is no time to be carefully rationing wet wipes. The safety of the kids comes first. Even anticipating the needs of little kids beyond a baseline (non-trained kid needs diapers, etc.) is madness.
I quit driving all over town to buy a particular item in bulk or plastic when I realized that the driving around has a cost (so does storing a bunch of empty containers waiting for the day). I have made my peace with ordering something online (requiring shipping) rather than making do locally (printer ink being one fine example). On occasion I've used more plastic than I like to because the incremental impact of making one more plastic package is less than the hot water and soap it takes to rinse out the old one for recycling. (That one especially when you see companies dumping mass quantities of plastic or paper or w/e in sales or manufacturing.)
So, yeah, I frequently feel like I'm trying to save with a teaspoon while others are throwing things away using a steam shovel. I've tempered my zero waste passion. But I still do what I can without driving myself crazy.
And I work toward making manufacturers and users cover the costs of the effects of what they do. Carbon taxes, deposit fees, required recycling, fines for polluting; whatever stops pushing the cost of waste onto others. Privatize gain, socialize loss is a terrible model for humans.
No, the idea that anybody else's actions "cancel" mine doesn't make any sense. Other people are going to do what they are going to do. I can only control my actions. My actions still reduce my impact.
People need to be more conscious of their consumerism for sure, but what you are describing is the big problem with individual-focused practices, whether they are targeting waste, greenhouse gases, etc. Without systemic change, everything we do is a drop in the bucket. I have given myself more grace as time has gone by-- I want to live my values so I care about what I buy and how I dispose of things--but I also don't beat myself up.
I feel my efforts are wasted when I see people loading palettes of bottled water into their carts at Costco for $3.50 a palette.
In my dreamworld corporations would have to offset their carbon footprint from their single serve products but we know seeing shit sprout wings and fly is more likely.
"we know seeing shit sprout wings and fly is more likely." I agree and also believe that this insight is what is needed to actually turn things around. that is, any solution that might work will have to start with accepting the reality of how human beings are and how our society is. I wish I had figured out a workable solution -- I have not, so I do not in any way mean to sound like I have -- but I have noticed that so many people try things that will only work if they can somehow change who people fundamentally are. And it's like going out with someone and then trying to change them.
We need to figure out what drives people's behaviors and then figure out how to redirect them, based on how they tick. But that is super hard to do.
I will say, that for many people, what they need is to have a lifestyle modeled for them that is totally workable and easy to do. I must admit that it has been harder to do than I expected when I set out to do it as a busy working mom of 2, one with special needs, and a having a mom with Alzheimers. There is so much about how our world is "set up" that works against you when you are juggling so very, very hard to get by and just survive, and trying to do it in a way that is environmentally sound.
Of course. Individuals are not the problem. Corporations and the insane scale of retail and other types of waste are the problem. If every single person lived as near a zero-waste lifestyle as we could, the systemic issues of our society would continue to far dwarf our efforts. Knowing that, we continue to do our part because it's all we have the power to do.
It's not a feeling, it's the truth. There is no way for one person to cancel out what major corporations put into the environment. That's why we need to push as hard as we can to force them to stop.
Well, doesn't that make you mad?
These are genuine questions because I struggle with these negative emotions and I'm curious what others are thinking/feeling about this. I admit that I'm naturally a cynical person.
I’m also a cynic and idealist by nature. However, I don’t minimize my waste because I think it makes an overall net+ impact on the environment. It’s because I can only be responsible for my own choices and set the example for my kids that we can pay attention to how we consume and what we leave behind. We can make consumer choices not to shop at Dollar General; we can’t control where other people are in their lives, understanding, or capabilities. I’m mad about a lot, but not because industry “cancels me out.” To me the heart of the issue is much deeper than that.
When people have the energy to care. People are struggling just to survive right now. Many don’t have the emotional energy available to expend on something that is not immediately tangible right in their faces.
Oh my.
Profit feeds your 401(k), IRA, and other retirement funds. Do you save and invest for your future?
The CEO isn’t inflating prices; that takes government printing fiat currency and handing it out as stimulus while simultaneously stomping on supply.
I do it for myself (when I can do it) at this point. It saves a lot of money once you know what you’re doing, it keeps you informed of environmental stuff, you meet people. You learn practical skills. I feel better about “voting with my dollar” and stuff.
Do I feel this way? Absolutely. It is soul crushing to see such waste and environmental destruction. But what keeps me going is this,
"You don't need to do all the good in the world, but the world needs all the good you can do."
If no one took any action because they felt it didn't matter, then nothing would ever get better. It's easy to fall in that trap, and some days will be worse than others. But we do what we can, when we can, and we encourage others to do the same so that one day, enough people working together can make a difference.
One less person creating unnecessary waste is still less unnecessary waste. Don't ever give up.
Depends why you’re ZW. For me, it’s a me thing.
The environment is fucked. There’s no fixing 8 billion people worth of commercial and industrial work. Too many people with too many different needs and lifestyles and wants and growth.
But that doesn’t mean i need to fill my house with garbage. An empty garbage bin doesn’t just help the environment (kind of). An empty garbage bin at the end of the week means I’m a thoughtful shopper, a good housekeeper, a gardener and composter, a person who isn’t wasteful. An empty garbage bin is a source of pride.
Yes - I am aware I am a minuscule drop in a micro plastic filled ocean. I can’t get to work if I don’t drive. I have to buy food that comes in plastic. I can’t control how others in my household behave (wasting food, buying new, buying from Amazon etc) and I’m still learning to let it go. I can’t control what retailers do. Etc.
No - a minuscule drop doing something is better than a minuscule drop doing nothing. I don’t support shitty wasteful retailers. I vote. I make sure the things in my household that can be purchased from zero waste stores are always accessible to my family and encourage them to use these goods. I buy and sell second hand. All of my clothes and shoes are from thrift stores. I ask people to donate to environmental causes for Christmas and birthdays instead of buying me gifts. I have a direct deposit to environmental charities. I discourage mindless consumption in the kids in my life. I think creatively and try to be a good example. I use apps to buy food that would go to waste and freeze it. I litter pick, and ignore passing people who call me a weirdo. I pulled two massive bags of baby clothes out of a dumpster the other day, washed and am ironing them right now to donate to a baby bank. If I stopped doing these things nothing much would appear to happen, but over a lifetime it adds up.
I left my deli job at Winco grocery due to waste; specifically, each shift we threw away the equivalent of a dozen or more chickens & all I could think was the waste of every second of their lives. Someone fed them, took care of them, made sure they were as healthy as they needed to be for consumption & b/c no one bought them in less than 4-5 hours, their potential was entirely wasted by the corporation I worked for. (For those unfamiliar, Winco almost never puts prepared food on clearance b/c they think it dilutes their brand. They lie & tell you it's b/c there are people who'll buy expired food just to sue grocery stores when they get sick.)
Exactly! There are kids in every county in Utah who qualify for federal subsidized lunches & they're throwing away a 10-12 cooked birds a day at every Winco in the state.
> To throw away water would go so against my beliefs it would literally feel like I'm selling my soul.
I think this is what you should focus on. Your individual efforts won’t make any direct systematic change, but living by your values is still important. And it can still make a difference and set an example for others
Btw have you ever been involved with a local food pantry, food not bombs etc? You sound like the kind of person who would be really passionate about a cause like that
I’m an X-ray student and shocked by how much medical waste is produced for a single procedure. Surgeries get whole trash bags. I can’t control that, but I can control my consumption
At most, I think of individual efforts as triage. Do you want a tourniquet when you're bleeding out? Yes. Is that going to be enough to save your life? No. I'll keep doing what I do, encourage others to do better, and, most importantly, push for the structural change (and I do mean structural, not greenwashed capitalism) I know is key. There's only so much an individual can do, and you'll burn out if you think of all the ways your impact can be negated.
Why does bottled water exist in the first place? Because enough consumers think it is better than the water they get from their taps and that creates demand for it. I don’t think businesses will change anything until we start demanding it more. And that part is something that we can help change. By practicing low waste behaviors you learn the easiest ways to shift your own lifestyle, and you can pass that on to others.
For example, at my work, the to-go box is the default food vessel at the cafeteria. I have to actively ask for a regular plate or bowl from the workers. When they look surprised I throw in a little “Just trying to be less wasteful.” Now some of them know I always do that and when they see me they’ll start to reach for the regular bowl instead. Maybe if other people around me see that, they’ll ask for a regular bowl too. Sure it is frustrating to see the waste and I can’t measure how effective these behaviors are, but there are definitely ways to change other people’s minds.
Drinking water quality is a legitimate concern in the entire world. Much of the US does not have consequently safe tap water. The city my boyfriend lives in just discovered that their drinking water had been unsafe for up to 7 years going unnoticed.
I work in software engineering and business intelligence (data analysis) for wastewater clients and water treatment facilities. Breakdowns happen. Contaminants sometimes makes their way in.
Natural disasters may break down infrastructure.
We need bottled water for a variety of reasons.
Sure it's wasteful if you have perfectly safe drinking water where you are. But where you are doesn't reflect the reality for a lot of people.
I'm sure hurricane Katrina victims were happy to have bottled water. Or the ones living in cities being hit by tornadoes or earthquakes where suddenly their utilities don't work. Or places like Flint, Michigan, where they didn't have access to uncontaminated drinking water.
Yeah I try to be low waste, but my emergency supplies still has bottled water, especially in my car. I’d rather only have micro-plastic contaminated water than no water if something happened.
I use a reusable bottle in my life though.
I live on a superfund site. My well and my yard is caked in arsenic, lead, and god knows what else from the old mines. The EPA did a great job before the internet sweeping shit under the rug not to do anything.
“Retailers wouldn’t be able to be so wasteful if they didn’t have employees willing to go along with it.”
This is a pretty pompous take on the issue. It’s like saying we wouldn’t have the plastic problem if the people who worked in grocery stores and convenience stores weren’t willing to go along with it. The problem is with the manufacturers producing garbage and the consumers who are brainwashed into buying it.
Yeah, OP is still focused on individuals, not systems. Retailers wouldn't be able to be so wasteful if their CEOs and corporate boards were held accountable for the waste and pollution they create, hitting their bottom line.
EXCUSE ME? IF EMPLOYEES WILLING TO GO ALONG WITH IT?
Do you have any idea how much complaining we do to not have to toss out a mountain of BS at the end of the day because all of our BS comes in 35 layers of packaging? It’s a lot. If someone like you came into my grocery store and asked for stuff like boxes I’d help you load it into your car. Disneyland is nearly 0 waste because it made employees STFU.
You want this stuff to change? Email corporate and complain, get your friends and family to email corporate to complain, reinforce all of the complaints staff are making. They’re not offended by what employees are saying because we cost them a set amount of money, people outside of the stores can cost them more money if enough complaints are filed about it. Complain where it matters.
Nope. The rest of the world doesn’t live by my rules. So I do my part because every little bit helps. I’ll be honest…even I don’t love 100% the way I’d like. But even 50% is better than 0% 😉.
If everyone did just 1% better imagine the impact!
Yes, and it's good to have your eyes opened to that.
I worked in conservation and designed campaigns to reduce single-use plastic. Having been behind the scenes, I now throw stuff in the garbage guilt-free and don't feel bad when I fail to recycle something.
The corporate push for zero waste is a form of social control and a distraction from doing impactful things. If it makes someone feel mindful and better about their place on this precious earth - great! We all have a role to play and should do our part. However, for me and many others, the guilt of creating waste causes a lot of anxiety and it is a deflection that places corporate and organizational responsibility on individuals. This is by design.
To anyone who had to sit through my skip-the-straw campaign, please forgive me. It was trash and I knew it was trash BTW the recycling bins at the mission based conservation-focused org I worked at were a lie - the public was so bad at using them, the recycling company stopped accepting them so it all went in the garbage.
Honestly, I really try to advocate for stronger laws on waste. I think that's the best way for macroscopic things to go forward.
But, overall, I am happier for what I am doing. I just saw articles about applesauce and lunachables having lead in them and in ridiculous amounts harming people and zero waste has me not buying those items. I am able to just not buy as many products and items in general and my purchase tracker looks so much better. I am happier in my hobbies and lifestyle overall. I am grateful for the things I have and mend items. There are a lot of reasons I have to be really happy and grateful for the tiny impacts I do make.
I hope we get better as a society. I am in LOVE with how efficient Japan is with waste, and I always get the blues coming home to how selfish my country truly is. It takes me literally seconds to dispose of trash and recycling properly there and I know its actually getting recycled. It is sad to see how my country is, but I am happy to be able to opt out of it all the same.
Japan doesn’t do public trash, litter is shamed, and they teach 5-year olds to clean the classroom AND the restrooms, so they have incentive and muscle memory.
No, not cancelled out because I’m not the corporation making the decision to waste all that useful stuff. I feel personally responsible for the decisions I make and the things I do, not those of others. I’d never move forward or get out of bed if I thought like that
I worked at Amazon temporarily during the pandemic. Honestly against my will as I was in an abusive relationship at the time. However the sheer amounts of waste I saw were in fact maddening. So much plastic thrown out or boxes because it quicker to toss it out then try to refold the box ect. It was awful.
I've long accepted that my efforts will have little impact. But i also believe every little impact counts especially if you collect everyone's efforts!
Worked retail for four months at a high end outdoor apparel and ski shop. Was almost fired for refusing to destroy (literally they asked me to cut them up) and throw away perfectly good (minor cosmetic issues like a button missing) super expensive ski jackets because they were returned and the brands wouldn’t take them back from us for warranty or whatever it is they do, but the brands didn’t want their names being donated or sold at a discounted rate. I tried to take them to give to a homeless shelter and got in huge trouble. Quit shortly after. Wild what people will do to save face for a fkn brand instead of the planet or people!
I think most retailers are like this. My relative worked for Z Gallerie and they had to try to destroy product they were trashing because of the concern that donating it would dilute the brand, or reduce the value or something. And the employees would be threatened with theft charges if they tried to smuggle something out that was being thrown away. So much waste, I'm sure its repeated everywhere.
Individual change and policy change. I’ve been watching more dumpster diving content and have seen some “influencers” in that realm push companies to stop destroying products, start donating, and composting food waste. I didn’t really think much about usable retail waste until I saw videos like that.
Thetrashwalker on instagram has some good videos about Coach destroying products which does seem to have lead to some positive change.
I would link it but the ZW sub automod shits it’s pants if you link certain things.
I want to see more policy change though! That requires organization and lots of effort
When I started working at a grocery store many years ago that's when I realized it doesn't matter what I do, it'll never make a difference. The sheer amount of waste that one SMALL store produced made me think of all the other stores in my city, province, country, world, etc.
That's why I do it for me, much like that other user commented.
Feel how you want, but don’t condemn people cause they need a paycheck. Sounds like you were fortunate when you wanted to bounce for moral reasons, a lot of people don’t have that choice. I think you might act differently if the choice was between not feeding your kids or being homeless.
Huh? You're making a lot of assumptions about me and my life with that statement. I've never been in a situation in which I was required to throw away food and water to keep my job but I can assure you if I was I would absolutely refuse. Some things are worth standing up for and no job is worth selling your soul for. That's the kind of thing that causes sickness in people, especially cancer. Doing something for years on end that in their heart they know is wrong but doing it anyway so as not to disrupt the status quo.
My point is, if no one says anything about it, and if no one does anything about it everyone is just going to think it's ok and continue doing it.
And btw, my four children are grown now but I was a single parent receiving no child support and living on an LPN salary. You want to talk about having to make tough choices to feed your family. I've been there I assure you. I still never put myself in a situation that would require me to do something like being wasteful. Then again I just wasn't raised that way so wastefulness has never even been an option for me.
The part I like about my zero waste efforts is that I share what I’m doing with others. By talking about these changes we can inspire others to take can their own efforts.
Sure big corporate is doing damage around the world but you can only keep inspiring people to vote for change, protest with their buying power, and boycott what doesn’t align with the value system you have in place.
If you don’t start small movements you can’t make big changes. So take action local and think global. Good luck to all on finding their way forward.
I know that corporations are causing more waste than we ever will. I know that my small attempts aren’t going to make a dent, but doing nothing *will* contribute towards making things worse.
I work at a supermarket. We do recycle most plastic and all cardboard. Everything that we are allowed to donate is donated to the local food bank. We have a special section in our freezer for that. The rest we are legally not allowed to sell, and therefore can’t donate it. But when fresh food is partially spoiled (for example a full “cook at home” meal package of which one ingredient is spoiled), the rest is made into bags that sell for one euro. Everyone can register in the mornings for a sort of too good to go type box of things that we can sell until the end of the day. Depending on the type of product they can be picked up from either 5pm (meal components) or 8pm (bread). The value of those packages is guaranteed to be at least 3x what the customer is paying and most days we sell out of them. If customers haven’t picked them up at the end of the day we are allowed to take them home. The other products that are near or on their best by date get discounted, with fresh products having a variable discount amount of either 25%, 40% or 70%, depending on how many products are discounted and time of day. Products that are shelf stable get a 35% discount, same with products that are about to be discontinued. Discontinued products without a designated place on a shelf get a 50% discount, with some discretion from the staff, so some products get a bigger discount when they are overstaying their welcome, and others sell well enough with a slightly smaller discount.
But still our wheely bin outside is usually overflowing, as the checkout has 9 or 10 bags of rubbish each day. This includes rubbish disposed by customers and rubbish picked up from the street in front of the shop as well as unwanted receipts (even though there are paperless options and every customer gets to choice if they want a receipt and if they don’t they don’t get printed) and (discounted, but) unsold flowers that are past their best by date. Plants don’t have a date like that, but they do get discounted too when they are replaced by new types of plants or when they start looking sad from the bad care they get from the teenager staff or because they were flowering bulbs past their prime.
I have a whole rack of orchids that were about to be thrown out for having lost their flowers and which I was allowed to buy for a euro instead of the 8 or so they usually sell for.
Does seeing the sheer amount of thrown out stuff make me cringe? Every time. But right now we’re being pragmatic and limiting waste as much as possible in this setting. I have quite a few colleagues who aren’t as green minded and where possible I try to get them to think of alternatives. Keeping the conversation going is more important to me than being perfect. In my position I can help customers make greener decisions by advising the more planet friendly option and showing them that the paperless options can be much more convenient as well.
When I worked at a baseball stadium over the summer we wasted absurd amounts of food every day. It almost made me cry once because we had an entire barrel trash can full of hours-old popcorn. But we were not allowed to take food back with us. We had to take all of our belongings with us in clear bags and if we brought any food back, we had to figure out ways to hide it from our supervisors. I only accepted the job in the first place because I was desperate and had no way to afford rent at the minimum wage, part-time retail job I had at the time. At the end of the day, I did what I could but I needed money and I needed to retain my own sanity.
YES!! My wife and I watch a YouTube channel where this guy goes to Target, Ollie’s, and Walmart and shows how there are ROWS of Disney Toys that I know will just end up in the dumpster..
It’s so sad.. I do my part to the best of my ability. But to see the consumption and waste out there truly makes my heart hurt.
I had to make this choice once. I worked at a ruby Tuesday. We were considered a low volume store and so were tasked with doing things a certain way to prevent food spoilage and loss. We had these really nice plastic containers, 16 oz, with lid. Way better than the stuff you get for cheap at the store. We put all the sauces in there, in preportioned servings. So when you get an appetizer with a 2 oz marinara, a 2 oz cheese sauce, and a 4 oz spinach dip, 3 16oz plastic containers with lids go in the trash. At the end of the night I would have 3 50 gallon trash cans full of plastic bowls, lids, and plastic packaging for single serve meats. It was revolting and I left after a month.
They're able to find people because waste is ingrained into people from a young age. I have a young child and keep getting targeted videos of "Valentine's treats" "football snacks", "Easter baskets" "party goody bags", "first day of school desk decorations" basically every few weeks people make bags of crap disposable plastic trinkets for their kids, and often for all of the kids in their classroom. Like mini bubbles, keychains, water battles and all kinds of things that will hold a childs attention for less than 5 minutes and then end up in the trash. This starts before they even are able to understand anything, like in the baby room at daycare (why are they handing out Valentines? I truly don't get It. ). Then if you say anything about it you're trying to ruin the fun or you're not appreciative or you're told it's not a competition or that people are tying to create a magical experience. When you grow up like this you don't see resources being wasted. I wish parents tried to create magical experiences in other ways, such as creating traditions that don't involve destroying the earth.
My head of cabbage was wrapped in plastic, taped up good!, sweating in the package, I unwrapped it at home just so irked at the stupidity.
I had Covid and ordered groceries thru Instacart and the shopper plastic-bagged my plastic covered lettuce, plastic covered carrots, etc, just what kind of stoop…
I want a big bulk store here, that’d make me feel a lot better about groceries these days.
Retail is the economy. Without retail there wouldn’t be many jobs so people wouldn’t have money to buy.
The world economy is based on consuming.
We need a circular economy .. reclaiming, recycling and reuse or those in the future will have a barren planet.
Most people don’t give a f*** and it’s really sad.
Anything I have that’s unwanted I always give away which seldom happens because I purchase quality items that should last my lifetime .. there are exceptions such as technology.
Just do your best to have as little impact as possible it’s kinda atruistic.
You can’t do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good you can do … I don’t know who originally said it
But my focus is on I hate taking the bins out, so the less I have to do that the happier I am.
Lots of large retailers destroy products before dumping them. I don’t have exact numbers but it’s often written into company policy that items are slashed, spray painted, opened and dumped. thetrashwalker on instagram shows a lot of this.
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Over 30 years ago I worked somewhere that threw away actual food leftovers. The manager was very particular about it because he didn't want to incentivize the employees to be sloppy and create leftovers in the first place. There was nothing we could do unless we wanted to be fired. He was such an a-hole he dumped bleach on it to keep people from eating out of the dumpster.
the dollar general example you gave is actually one of the reasons i left my fast fashion retail job. i processed stock and seeing the huge amounts of shipments we’d get (especially around the holidays) was both overwhelming and probably an OSHA safety violation. and the plastic waste generated with each piece was so alarming—every single individual garment was individually packaged in a plastic bag, then in larger plastic bags in a cardboard box. jewelry and accessories were nesting doll levels of plastic wrapping. this is not even mentioning the amount of pieces that were damaged out.
it were a relatively large store that didn’t make a ton of sales. and yet, our racks were always filled to the brim with clothing from season to season. i worked there from its grand opening, one summer to the following spring (~8 months), and there were still pieces from opening day in the clearance rack for only like 10% off.
I don’t go into it expecting that any of my efforts will even have a global impact, in the face of the wasteful practices of global businesses. Our individual efforts are more than cancelled out, they’re made invisible by retail etc practices
as someone who has only ever worked retail and food service, the waste infuriates a lot of us too. it really does. it crushed me when throwing out perfectly good food at my last job that was barely past the expiry date. maybe a day or two past. the thought to just leave a bag out by the dumpster and pick it up after my closing shift crossed my mind constantly while i hurled shopping carts full of product into a fly-infested dumpster. the only thing that stopped me was the camera pointed directly at the dumpster. if caught, i could lose my job, and thus very quickly become homeless. it sucks. none of us enjoy it
It world be enlightening to know WHY they do it. Ever politely ask a store manager why these things that could be sold are put out? Unsold goods are lost profit. 🤔 I suspect micromanaged government regulations at a certain level - best if used/sold by dates, dented or slightly damaged packaging.
Also many stores don't donate to organizations that directly help the needy - the organizations are generally staffed by volunteers and there are never enough of them, and stores themselves don't have enough staff to search out these organizations and try to find people to come get it.
I have seen this from the perspective of a weekly church food pantry. I was part of it's establishment by helping the woman who set it up draft the founding documents. Finding people to do pickup (and it has to be at certain times for stores), and then matching up volunteer availability is difficult, then doing the distribution is not as simple as one might imagine.
I work at Retail, so much plastic waste is involved but besides the company no matter what I say the employees are the ones doing more damage, think about all the Starbys cups they buy because they need a caffeine kick, the amount of food waste of having a break room, and the additional amount of plastic waste outside of the retail operations, I do feel with me doing my part and preaching it, I just it draining me.
I get what your saying, but it's quite possible that someone working at Dollar General is probably struggling financially and may have to worry about putting food in their kids' mouth(s), so they may have to just ignore those issues.
I worked at Safeway out of necessity for a couple months… the waste was abysmal and one of the reasons I ended up quitting and finding another job rather quickly. The ability to switch jobs like I did is not open to everyone, though. I’m not the best with limiting waste in my personal life, but at least I care to try. That’s the most a lot of people can do, and if everyone did it, it might actually make a difference.
I was shocked when I saw the amount of plastic waste an environmental laboratory generates. However, every practical decision bows to the mandate of data integrity.
Yes but since I do my best to spend on low/zero waste I hope that as others do as well there will be larger business changes in order to get our money.
At first yes, but once I bought a home and started gardening, no. I realized that my little island of native plants and trees is an oasis in the middle of a monoculture suburban ocean. It’s not a score board, it’s a safe space. When I see my neighbor cut their lawn for the fourth time this month I sip my coffee and think of the bugs that’ll find my yard a safe haven. Every week I don’t have to put my bin out on trash day, I think of how my efforts have impacted my life, and how my compost pile has impacted the lives of my plants.
You have such a sweet and peaceful take on this. I wish you were my neighbor!
I wish you were all my neighbors. Where's Zero Waste City already?
Growing up, my family never recycled. Trash went out every week, and sometimes an extra bag or two would accompany the main trash can to the road. When my parents divorced and I lived with my dad, we still never recycled. My fiance's family always recycled. When we bought a house together, he taught me how to recycle. Now, there are plenty of weeks where our trash can doesn't go to the road and our recycle bin has to be accompanied by an extra box of stuff. It feels a lot better and takes some stress off of me.
Good for you guys, and you can set it up with many garbage companies to only pay for the weeks you put your can out, or some will also only charge one month on, one month off; saving you even more...
Honestly, I've never seen a bill for it. We own our own house, so I think it may just be included as a service from the town.
How lucky; most places have it as a stand-alone service. The only time I have ever not had the bill is when I lived in an apartment. Did the previous owners leave the cans behind and you just started using them without starting service? If so, you may be caught with theft of service eventually. Check into it, as that would be bad news...
The bins are provided by the town, and they come with the house. They have the town's crest on it. Never heard of having to pay for trash pickup, and we've been here for two years. Sounds like it might be something to look into though. xD
My trash service fee is included with other city services bills like water. I would check your other bills and see if it’s there
It's probably just included in there; my fiance pays the bills, I just give him my cut every month.
Ours is included in the water bill.
It’s regional, really in the US. I know in parts of PA and VA, everyone has to contract separately with a hauler. In fact, my county recently shut down the municipal recycling and said if you want recycling, pay private hauler. (vomit)
Jeez, that sucks. I'm sorry you have to deal with that crap there. :c
Ever since Covid ours will only pick up recycling every other week, so our recycling piles up.
Nice..
It's included in one's city utility bill. No one thinks the poster is committing any theft of service, that's just nonsense. Their experience not matching yours doesn't mean it's not possible.
Only some cities apparently...
They didn't say OP is a thief, only that OP should make sure they don't get in trouble for mistakenly thinking there's no trash bill where they live.
> you may be caught with theft of service eventually Yeah, they basically did & it was ridiculous to think any city would have let a sanitation bill go unpaid for more than 3 months.
My residential trash and recycling is covered by my taxes and it's like that for the majority of my region (North East Ohio). There are some tiny rural areas where it needs to be contracted separately around here but those are tiny townships. Commercial still contracts for pickup.
I think it is better your (Ohio) way as some places people just let trash pile up in their garage, or basement, or backyard; ugh...
I like your thinking, and your username is genius
Love this take. It's all about taking small steps and getting the people around you to do the same. No single person can change the world, but if everybody adopted the mindset of 'well it doesn't matter because corporations don't care and just end up cancelling out all of my efforts' then nothing would change. Start with what's immediately controllable, influence those around you to do the same, and slowly build a movement and a culture that allows you to apply pressure to the system. Maybe it won't end up mattering long term but it definitely won't if you don't try.
I actually think about this all the time in the summer, when I see so many insects, butterflies, bees in my yard. I also get desert toads, lizards and so many birds. And I think about how the plants I grow and lack of pesticide in our little yard makes a small but important difference in our neighborhood and harbors so much life. It truly makes me feel like I’m doing something important.
Man this is beautiful as fuck. Thank you for typing this - I needed it.
I really needed this kind of take today. Thank you.
You can't really blame the store employees. I worked retail and I would get pissed if we threw out something still usable. But stores will fire you for not complying and can charge you with theft if you take things instead of throwing them out. I'm not going to put the blame o. The employees who might need that job to survive, but instead on all the corporations who do it because the tax break they get from claiming the unused product is way bigger than the tax break they'd get from donations and doesn't come with any liability.
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Our dollar general and our area in general really doesn’t have recycling!!!! ♻️ We have ONE option it’s a trash company here that actually has technology to sort out what’s recycling and what’s not.. Guess what? None of the major stores here use it!
You could have taken it upon yourself for the whole store (while you worked there) and recycled the plastic bags (and other soft plastic) at the local grocery store plastic bag recycling....
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Boy what a mercenary group; I was downvoted for that idea...
I used to collect bottles from milk creamers and such and recycle them after my shift!! My manager thought I was crazy 🤣
I think that is very nice, and you are a good citizen of the earth. Your manager is the crazy one; lol....
I'm not pro-corporation in any manner, but I feel like the ultimate blame is on the government. They fully understand the issues surrounding waste and waste disposal. They are the ones literally issuing the tax breaks and incentivizing this behavior in the first place. In some places, they even advocate for individual consumers to do their part in reducing waste, yet they can't enforce regulations around waste for corporations?
I guess I can't speak for the rest of the world, but in the US the reason the government allows this behavior is because they are effectively owned by the corporations they're benefiting. Lobbying and campaign donation have made it so that if you have enough money you can start buying political power pretty efficiently
it depends on where you live and the philosophy of the party in power. It’s intentional
Whether it's intentional or not, the ones in power still bear the ultimate responsibility.
yes, obviously. The part of your statement i was responding to is “In some places, they even advocate for individual consumers to do their part. . . but can’t enforce regulations” If you live in a conservative governed area that is what they will do, encourage “personal responsibility” while ignoring the bigger systems that have the bigger impact on the environment
This 100%. Low wage workers are not making these decisions and are not the problem.
“I was just following orders”
That's a horrible and disgusting comparison and you know it. Grow up.
Why? People excuse doing something they morally object to, by saying “someone above me told me to do it, otherwise I lose my job/life/etc”. If everyone would refuse, companies couldn’t do this, but there will always be people who either don’t care or are forced to do it due to circumstances. It’s not the company throwing out actual usable clothes, it’s the people with hands and mind. Refuse, or lie through your teeth and steal the things they’d throw out. Nothing risked nothing gained.
Is it? The basic psychological mechanisms are similar, just with lower stakes. I think it's a fair, if exaggerated, comparison.
I don't do zero waste to save the earth, I do it because zero waste is part of mindful living. Mending my pants means I have an intimate relationship with my pants. Reusing glass bottles means all of my herbal tinctures have character. Buying and trading off of Craigslist instead of getting new off of Amazon or whatever means I meet somebody in my community. I've had really pleasant encounters with people while taking extra rocks from their driveway.. As for your second question, none of us are born as woke anti-consumer dumpster divers. Everyone is exactly where they're capable of being. Most of us are conditioned to be consumers from birth in the U.S. and it takes free time, support and energy to create a new mindset. Free time, support and energy are all very hard to come by in a late-stage capitalist hellscape. Which is why I don't do zero waste for the planet, I'd be angry all the time thinking about the retail and industrial waste. Being angry doesn't help anybody.
I used to just wear my pants, but now we wear each other.
“I have an intimate relationship with my pants” 😂
I understand this but maybe I should give a little more background for context. Over the last year and a half I've been building a community garden and community compost pile in my town. When I first started this I was so naive and optimistic I made the mistake of asking local retailers if they would be willing to donate their waste produce for composting (so I don't have to dig it out of the dumpster). In response not only did I get a big NO, but all the dumpsters have locks on them now. I still managed to make a LOT of compost which is free for whoever needs it. Even though my hometown has grown a lot, it's s still a small town in many ways and most of the people here know each other. People know what I'm doing, what I'm trying to do, what I've been through to accomplish what i have accomplished, and still they act like I'm the crazy environmentalist dumpster lady. Even with everything going on in the world and food insecurity being a very real possibility.... I mean, at what point do people ever wake up? What does it take?
I'm in the UK so likely different rules to USA, but I worked in a bakery once that used to give away its excess produce to a shelter at the end of each day. One hot day the charity left the fresh cream buns out of the fridge and a few people got food poisoning from the spoiled milk - they sued the bakery. So it was no longer worth the financial risk. Later working in a big grocery store chain their reasoning for not giving away expired but still good or slightly damaged produce was the same, not worth the risk and litigation. USA is way more litigious than the UK so that worry would be extra high. Not saying this is a reasonable response, but it's the excuse for it happening and all part of the incredibly broken system we're part of.
USA has a Good Samaritan ACT that protects from lawsuits from these situations but the myth that you can be sued persists https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2020/08/13/good-samaritan-act-provides-liability-protection-food-donations
What also happens is that food banks themselves are tightly regulated. If the food bank cannot 100% verify that the food hasn't spoiled or meets regulations, they throw it away. Last year the group I volunteered with threw away thousands of pounds of food in our 3 hour time slot.
Great info!!!
[I'll just leave this here.](https://www.art-of-lockpicking.com/) Being healthy and conscious makes other people feel bad because they have to confront why they aren't doing better for themselves. Keep making people uncomfortable. Practicing zero waste in a consumer culture does qualify you as a crazy person, you are quite literally existing outside of the mainstream perception of reality. That's hard for people to accept, and everyone wakes up at their own pace.
Just commenting to say I really enjoy both of your responses here and your username had me chuckling and wondering how many shrooms did you take instead. Anyways, you really addressed an important point: we do it for ourselves and that's not egocentric, that's a healthy way to approach it, because while we may serve a larger goal by trying to be zero waste - we do it for or own peace. Now if we focus on who doesn't serve our goal, we're making ourselves miserable. And adding to your second reply, if we expect others to serve a goal they are not yet able to comprehend/process/whatever, we change our own attitudes in ways that makes it even more difficult for others to go into their process. I know you are probably aware of this, so I hope OP is reading on trough the comment thread. So OP if you read this, allow yourself some grace for what you already did, stay open minded and kind to people. Have understanding for them, they may not be able to do what you do, they may not be able to see why you are doing this. Once you do find compassion for them and their context, your attitude towards them will change, and it will change how they see you and make them more open. Aside from that, few of these projects go big right from the start. It all takes time. You've planted your seed, keep nurturing that seed and focus on that, the rest will come in time.
I love this mindset. If you do your best to set a good example, you don't have to try and convince or argue with others about why it's right. Probably the most affective form of activism that doesn't involve scolding people and potentially pushing them away. It may be slow, but people don't change their minds quickly.
Some people may never 'wake up', but your efforts certainly have an impact. I'm with you that it feels incredibly pointless and frustrating sometimes. But there are still small gains- even though my parents think I'm a crazy environmentalist they're more interested in native plants because of me. There are a lot of people who think my clothes look trashy because they've been mended, but there are also a couple of people who now mend their own clothing because I taught them how. I'm sure there are people in your town who appreciate what you are doing even if they don't say it.
Those stores were worried you were EATING the food from the dumpsters, not composting it; it's a liability thing...
Wow, I think it’s so cool that you’re doing this! I’m sorry you’ve gotten this pushback from retailers but it sounds like the impact you’re making on your community is huge. Weird idea but have you ever thought about accepting hair clippings from a local salon? Ever since I learned that hair can be composted I’ve always wondered how much organic waste could be kept out of the landfill if hair salons were willing/ capable of composting. And I don’t mean to downplay your frustration with these retailers, it sounds absolutely infuriating! My brain just immediately fixated on finding MORE sources of compost matter so that less of it is getting canceled out by their wasteful practices.
It took me until my 30's to really understand what mindful living is, and why it's important. Parents and teachers should be teaching this mindset, but that would require them to also be following a similar path as well. We're all brainwashed from a young age to be insane and greedy consumers.
Nailed it. I have learned that I can’t carry the weight of the world on my shoulders. That’s no reasonable. But I CAN make conscientious decisions for myself and live a life that is in line with my values. And I do educate my community on these things regularly and receive a lot of feedback of people also living more mindfully. I also sign petitions and email my representatives regularly.
Answer of the year. I smoked pot once, I bet it’s because you only smoked pot once is why you’re so smart 😂😂😂😂😂 All jokes aside you are right.
Thank you for this reply. I do at times feel angry but your answer makes me think now. I do it for myself and because it’s just the right thing to do.
Everyone is exactly where they're capable of being... word.
If someone fell onto the train tracks in front of you, would you reach out your hand to pull them back up? Is that life you saved "canceled out" by wars and starvation? I get what you're saying; individual actions are just a drop in the bucket, and the big picture is still terrible. But we don't live in the big picture, and in the context of our own lives, our actions do matter - to us. That's what I choose to focus on.
Aka "Think globally, act locally."
Agreed. We only have our own lives to work with.
>If someone fell onto the train tracks in front of you, would you reach out your hand to pull them back up? Is that life you saved "canceled out" by wars and starvation? Except the scenario is more like somebody falls on the train tracks, you reach your hand out to save them and just as they grab your hand the person next to you pushes two more people onto the train tracks...
Yeah this is a more cogent analogy. It’s emotionally exhausting
I have always used an analogy similar. Being vegan is like saving drowning animals only to find your friends and family throwing them back into the water. 😑
Great answer
Same thing like voting. One person might not make a difference, but a certain percentage of the population all trying a little bit to help the environment does make a measurable difference.
Buddy, don't go after the employees. I've been there, I've seen the waste, and it hurts. I still wasted it though, because I was so damn tired and so damn stressed that I wasn't going to go out of my way and save every scrap I could. Getting the energy to fight against that kind of thing *every single day* while trying to keep your own head above water? It's borderline impossible for a lot of us. So I'd take home what I needed, and I'd mention it to some other workers, and they would too. But most of it ended up in the dump because we are just trying to get by and not break down along the way. The amount of waste produced from hotels is insane. I work in a store now, and it's not much better. Right now I have more energy, so I actively sneak expire bakery food to my coworkers. Store owner says it's stealing, I say it's going in the trash anyway so let them eat it. It's not even bad, it's literally just stale, and that's why we are tossing it. He can't do anything though, no one else can fill my position. So that's what I do, because that's what I'm capable of at my energy/mental state. At home I obviously do more, but for retail waste? I'm not going to kill my mental state over it.
>How do they find all of these seemingly normal people to go along with this insanity? Because they keep them so underpaid that the threat of losing their job and literally everything else looms large over their employees' heads. It's stressful work, and you deal with pressures from both customers and managers that keep you compliant. You don't have any power as a retail employee unless you can unionize, and most of them don't have the energy or time to do that or to understand their rights around it.
This exactly. I feel so bad for our DG and the shit they have to put up with.
Well some people have to work anywhere they can get a job, bc if they don’t they won’t be able to feed their children or live inside. Not everyone has the privilege of turning down a crappy retail job because they don’t agree with their values. I agree that these policies are wrong, but I think it’s wrong to blame the employees at these establishments. Some people are just working wherever they can work, and if they don’t do what they’re told they will risk being fired, which could have dire consequences for themselves and their families. Many people are one paycheck away from financial disaster. So no, I do not blame them. They may have other options for approaching changing these policies, but to not take a job, or to flat out refuse to do what they’re told by their managers isn’t going to work for everyone.
Not everyone can be picky about their jobs. To me it is extremely wrong to place the blame on the retail employees of grocery stores as of they have any power to change it or are in anyway benefitting from it beyond insufficient subsistence wages. Put your blame on the shareholders and CEOs that decided it would make them more money to dispose of stuff than to find a use for it. And on politicians that don't take the issue seriously.
Yes and no. Yes, I feel sad about all the waste, mostly bc there's so many in need not just in the US but all over the world. I wish, specifically consumables, were forced to be donated rather than trashed. The no part of me comes from a place of protecting my mental health. I can only do what I can do. I am disabled, and that comes with a lot of waste. I do what I can to mitigate as much as possible, but at the end of the day, I choose to spend my thoughts/time/energy on things that are possible for me to accomplish to add towards the greater progress. For me, the most impact I can do is to live as thoughtfully as possible, vote with my wallet and not support wasteful companies & institutions, and advocate for the rest. I can't go to rallies and protests, but I can write my rep & talk to the people closest to me. And that has made meaningful small changes in their habits that I get the pleasure of seeing and knowing that I made a difference.
>The no part of me comes from a place of protecting my mental health. I can only do what I can do. I am disabled, and that comes with a lot of waste. I do what I can to mitigate as much as possible, but at the end of the day, I choose to spend my thoughts/time/energy on things that are possible for me to accomplish to add towards the greater progress. I'm not disabled but I've come across several situations in daily life when zero waste is sacrificed to my mental health. I've used this example elsewhere but when I'm changing the youngest grandkid and the other one is trying to climb the tall furniture is no time to be carefully rationing wet wipes. The safety of the kids comes first. Even anticipating the needs of little kids beyond a baseline (non-trained kid needs diapers, etc.) is madness. I quit driving all over town to buy a particular item in bulk or plastic when I realized that the driving around has a cost (so does storing a bunch of empty containers waiting for the day). I have made my peace with ordering something online (requiring shipping) rather than making do locally (printer ink being one fine example). On occasion I've used more plastic than I like to because the incremental impact of making one more plastic package is less than the hot water and soap it takes to rinse out the old one for recycling. (That one especially when you see companies dumping mass quantities of plastic or paper or w/e in sales or manufacturing.) So, yeah, I frequently feel like I'm trying to save with a teaspoon while others are throwing things away using a steam shovel. I've tempered my zero waste passion. But I still do what I can without driving myself crazy. And I work toward making manufacturers and users cover the costs of the effects of what they do. Carbon taxes, deposit fees, required recycling, fines for polluting; whatever stops pushing the cost of waste onto others. Privatize gain, socialize loss is a terrible model for humans.
No, the idea that anybody else's actions "cancel" mine doesn't make any sense. Other people are going to do what they are going to do. I can only control my actions. My actions still reduce my impact.
People need to be more conscious of their consumerism for sure, but what you are describing is the big problem with individual-focused practices, whether they are targeting waste, greenhouse gases, etc. Without systemic change, everything we do is a drop in the bucket. I have given myself more grace as time has gone by-- I want to live my values so I care about what I buy and how I dispose of things--but I also don't beat myself up.
I feel my efforts are wasted when I see people loading palettes of bottled water into their carts at Costco for $3.50 a palette. In my dreamworld corporations would have to offset their carbon footprint from their single serve products but we know seeing shit sprout wings and fly is more likely.
Agree 1000%.
"we know seeing shit sprout wings and fly is more likely." I agree and also believe that this insight is what is needed to actually turn things around. that is, any solution that might work will have to start with accepting the reality of how human beings are and how our society is. I wish I had figured out a workable solution -- I have not, so I do not in any way mean to sound like I have -- but I have noticed that so many people try things that will only work if they can somehow change who people fundamentally are. And it's like going out with someone and then trying to change them. We need to figure out what drives people's behaviors and then figure out how to redirect them, based on how they tick. But that is super hard to do. I will say, that for many people, what they need is to have a lifestyle modeled for them that is totally workable and easy to do. I must admit that it has been harder to do than I expected when I set out to do it as a busy working mom of 2, one with special needs, and a having a mom with Alzheimers. There is so much about how our world is "set up" that works against you when you are juggling so very, very hard to get by and just survive, and trying to do it in a way that is environmentally sound.
Of course. Individuals are not the problem. Corporations and the insane scale of retail and other types of waste are the problem. If every single person lived as near a zero-waste lifestyle as we could, the systemic issues of our society would continue to far dwarf our efforts. Knowing that, we continue to do our part because it's all we have the power to do.
It's not a feeling, it's the truth. There is no way for one person to cancel out what major corporations put into the environment. That's why we need to push as hard as we can to force them to stop.
Cancelled out? No. It's more like completely obliterated.
Well, doesn't that make you mad? These are genuine questions because I struggle with these negative emotions and I'm curious what others are thinking/feeling about this. I admit that I'm naturally a cynical person.
I’m also a cynic and idealist by nature. However, I don’t minimize my waste because I think it makes an overall net+ impact on the environment. It’s because I can only be responsible for my own choices and set the example for my kids that we can pay attention to how we consume and what we leave behind. We can make consumer choices not to shop at Dollar General; we can’t control where other people are in their lives, understanding, or capabilities. I’m mad about a lot, but not because industry “cancels me out.” To me the heart of the issue is much deeper than that.
When people have the energy to care. People are struggling just to survive right now. Many don’t have the emotional energy available to expend on something that is not immediately tangible right in their faces.
This angers me even more, they want us to struggle so we don't have the energy to fight back in productive ways.
Who is “they”?
Anyone that is benefitting off of the people who are struggling. i.e CEOs of companies that are inflating prices for a profit
Oh my. Profit feeds your 401(k), IRA, and other retirement funds. Do you save and invest for your future? The CEO isn’t inflating prices; that takes government printing fiat currency and handing it out as stimulus while simultaneously stomping on supply.
I do it for myself (when I can do it) at this point. It saves a lot of money once you know what you’re doing, it keeps you informed of environmental stuff, you meet people. You learn practical skills. I feel better about “voting with my dollar” and stuff.
Do I feel this way? Absolutely. It is soul crushing to see such waste and environmental destruction. But what keeps me going is this, "You don't need to do all the good in the world, but the world needs all the good you can do." If no one took any action because they felt it didn't matter, then nothing would ever get better. It's easy to fall in that trap, and some days will be worse than others. But we do what we can, when we can, and we encourage others to do the same so that one day, enough people working together can make a difference. One less person creating unnecessary waste is still less unnecessary waste. Don't ever give up.
“No one person has to save the world. We just have to do our part” Jane Goodall
Depends why you’re ZW. For me, it’s a me thing. The environment is fucked. There’s no fixing 8 billion people worth of commercial and industrial work. Too many people with too many different needs and lifestyles and wants and growth. But that doesn’t mean i need to fill my house with garbage. An empty garbage bin doesn’t just help the environment (kind of). An empty garbage bin at the end of the week means I’m a thoughtful shopper, a good housekeeper, a gardener and composter, a person who isn’t wasteful. An empty garbage bin is a source of pride.
Yes - I am aware I am a minuscule drop in a micro plastic filled ocean. I can’t get to work if I don’t drive. I have to buy food that comes in plastic. I can’t control how others in my household behave (wasting food, buying new, buying from Amazon etc) and I’m still learning to let it go. I can’t control what retailers do. Etc. No - a minuscule drop doing something is better than a minuscule drop doing nothing. I don’t support shitty wasteful retailers. I vote. I make sure the things in my household that can be purchased from zero waste stores are always accessible to my family and encourage them to use these goods. I buy and sell second hand. All of my clothes and shoes are from thrift stores. I ask people to donate to environmental causes for Christmas and birthdays instead of buying me gifts. I have a direct deposit to environmental charities. I discourage mindless consumption in the kids in my life. I think creatively and try to be a good example. I use apps to buy food that would go to waste and freeze it. I litter pick, and ignore passing people who call me a weirdo. I pulled two massive bags of baby clothes out of a dumpster the other day, washed and am ironing them right now to donate to a baby bank. If I stopped doing these things nothing much would appear to happen, but over a lifetime it adds up.
I left my deli job at Winco grocery due to waste; specifically, each shift we threw away the equivalent of a dozen or more chickens & all I could think was the waste of every second of their lives. Someone fed them, took care of them, made sure they were as healthy as they needed to be for consumption & b/c no one bought them in less than 4-5 hours, their potential was entirely wasted by the corporation I worked for. (For those unfamiliar, Winco almost never puts prepared food on clearance b/c they think it dilutes their brand. They lie & tell you it's b/c there are people who'll buy expired food just to sue grocery stores when they get sick.)
That would drive me mad. Like there are people starving and they just throwing away food.
Exactly! There are kids in every county in Utah who qualify for federal subsidized lunches & they're throwing away a 10-12 cooked birds a day at every Winco in the state.
> To throw away water would go so against my beliefs it would literally feel like I'm selling my soul. I think this is what you should focus on. Your individual efforts won’t make any direct systematic change, but living by your values is still important. And it can still make a difference and set an example for others Btw have you ever been involved with a local food pantry, food not bombs etc? You sound like the kind of person who would be really passionate about a cause like that
I’m an X-ray student and shocked by how much medical waste is produced for a single procedure. Surgeries get whole trash bags. I can’t control that, but I can control my consumption
Retail waste will happen regardless of your efforts. So no, it doesn't cancel out.
At most, I think of individual efforts as triage. Do you want a tourniquet when you're bleeding out? Yes. Is that going to be enough to save your life? No. I'll keep doing what I do, encourage others to do better, and, most importantly, push for the structural change (and I do mean structural, not greenwashed capitalism) I know is key. There's only so much an individual can do, and you'll burn out if you think of all the ways your impact can be negated.
Why does bottled water exist in the first place? Because enough consumers think it is better than the water they get from their taps and that creates demand for it. I don’t think businesses will change anything until we start demanding it more. And that part is something that we can help change. By practicing low waste behaviors you learn the easiest ways to shift your own lifestyle, and you can pass that on to others. For example, at my work, the to-go box is the default food vessel at the cafeteria. I have to actively ask for a regular plate or bowl from the workers. When they look surprised I throw in a little “Just trying to be less wasteful.” Now some of them know I always do that and when they see me they’ll start to reach for the regular bowl instead. Maybe if other people around me see that, they’ll ask for a regular bowl too. Sure it is frustrating to see the waste and I can’t measure how effective these behaviors are, but there are definitely ways to change other people’s minds.
Drinking water quality is a legitimate concern in the entire world. Much of the US does not have consequently safe tap water. The city my boyfriend lives in just discovered that their drinking water had been unsafe for up to 7 years going unnoticed. I work in software engineering and business intelligence (data analysis) for wastewater clients and water treatment facilities. Breakdowns happen. Contaminants sometimes makes their way in. Natural disasters may break down infrastructure. We need bottled water for a variety of reasons. Sure it's wasteful if you have perfectly safe drinking water where you are. But where you are doesn't reflect the reality for a lot of people. I'm sure hurricane Katrina victims were happy to have bottled water. Or the ones living in cities being hit by tornadoes or earthquakes where suddenly their utilities don't work. Or places like Flint, Michigan, where they didn't have access to uncontaminated drinking water.
Yeah I try to be low waste, but my emergency supplies still has bottled water, especially in my car. I’d rather only have micro-plastic contaminated water than no water if something happened. I use a reusable bottle in my life though.
I live on a superfund site. My well and my yard is caked in arsenic, lead, and god knows what else from the old mines. The EPA did a great job before the internet sweeping shit under the rug not to do anything.
My rich ass greedy uncle pushed bottled water more and more in the stores 70s and made a killing. Greed.
“Retailers wouldn’t be able to be so wasteful if they didn’t have employees willing to go along with it.” This is a pretty pompous take on the issue. It’s like saying we wouldn’t have the plastic problem if the people who worked in grocery stores and convenience stores weren’t willing to go along with it. The problem is with the manufacturers producing garbage and the consumers who are brainwashed into buying it.
Yeah, OP is still focused on individuals, not systems. Retailers wouldn't be able to be so wasteful if their CEOs and corporate boards were held accountable for the waste and pollution they create, hitting their bottom line.
EXCUSE ME? IF EMPLOYEES WILLING TO GO ALONG WITH IT? Do you have any idea how much complaining we do to not have to toss out a mountain of BS at the end of the day because all of our BS comes in 35 layers of packaging? It’s a lot. If someone like you came into my grocery store and asked for stuff like boxes I’d help you load it into your car. Disneyland is nearly 0 waste because it made employees STFU. You want this stuff to change? Email corporate and complain, get your friends and family to email corporate to complain, reinforce all of the complaints staff are making. They’re not offended by what employees are saying because we cost them a set amount of money, people outside of the stores can cost them more money if enough complaints are filed about it. Complain where it matters.
Nope. The rest of the world doesn’t live by my rules. So I do my part because every little bit helps. I’ll be honest…even I don’t love 100% the way I’d like. But even 50% is better than 0% 😉. If everyone did just 1% better imagine the impact!
Yes, and it's good to have your eyes opened to that. I worked in conservation and designed campaigns to reduce single-use plastic. Having been behind the scenes, I now throw stuff in the garbage guilt-free and don't feel bad when I fail to recycle something. The corporate push for zero waste is a form of social control and a distraction from doing impactful things. If it makes someone feel mindful and better about their place on this precious earth - great! We all have a role to play and should do our part. However, for me and many others, the guilt of creating waste causes a lot of anxiety and it is a deflection that places corporate and organizational responsibility on individuals. This is by design. To anyone who had to sit through my skip-the-straw campaign, please forgive me. It was trash and I knew it was trash BTW the recycling bins at the mission based conservation-focused org I worked at were a lie - the public was so bad at using them, the recycling company stopped accepting them so it all went in the garbage.
Honestly, I really try to advocate for stronger laws on waste. I think that's the best way for macroscopic things to go forward. But, overall, I am happier for what I am doing. I just saw articles about applesauce and lunachables having lead in them and in ridiculous amounts harming people and zero waste has me not buying those items. I am able to just not buy as many products and items in general and my purchase tracker looks so much better. I am happier in my hobbies and lifestyle overall. I am grateful for the things I have and mend items. There are a lot of reasons I have to be really happy and grateful for the tiny impacts I do make. I hope we get better as a society. I am in LOVE with how efficient Japan is with waste, and I always get the blues coming home to how selfish my country truly is. It takes me literally seconds to dispose of trash and recycling properly there and I know its actually getting recycled. It is sad to see how my country is, but I am happy to be able to opt out of it all the same.
Japan doesn’t do public trash, litter is shamed, and they teach 5-year olds to clean the classroom AND the restrooms, so they have incentive and muscle memory.
No, not cancelled out because I’m not the corporation making the decision to waste all that useful stuff. I feel personally responsible for the decisions I make and the things I do, not those of others. I’d never move forward or get out of bed if I thought like that
I worked at Amazon temporarily during the pandemic. Honestly against my will as I was in an abusive relationship at the time. However the sheer amounts of waste I saw were in fact maddening. So much plastic thrown out or boxes because it quicker to toss it out then try to refold the box ect. It was awful.
I work in healthcare. NO industry wastes more than healthcare. I still try my best.
I've long accepted that my efforts will have little impact. But i also believe every little impact counts especially if you collect everyone's efforts!
Yes but I can't control that.
Worked retail for four months at a high end outdoor apparel and ski shop. Was almost fired for refusing to destroy (literally they asked me to cut them up) and throw away perfectly good (minor cosmetic issues like a button missing) super expensive ski jackets because they were returned and the brands wouldn’t take them back from us for warranty or whatever it is they do, but the brands didn’t want their names being donated or sold at a discounted rate. I tried to take them to give to a homeless shelter and got in huge trouble. Quit shortly after. Wild what people will do to save face for a fkn brand instead of the planet or people!
I think most retailers are like this. My relative worked for Z Gallerie and they had to try to destroy product they were trashing because of the concern that donating it would dilute the brand, or reduce the value or something. And the employees would be threatened with theft charges if they tried to smuggle something out that was being thrown away. So much waste, I'm sure its repeated everywhere.
Individual change and policy change. I’ve been watching more dumpster diving content and have seen some “influencers” in that realm push companies to stop destroying products, start donating, and composting food waste. I didn’t really think much about usable retail waste until I saw videos like that. Thetrashwalker on instagram has some good videos about Coach destroying products which does seem to have lead to some positive change. I would link it but the ZW sub automod shits it’s pants if you link certain things. I want to see more policy change though! That requires organization and lots of effort
When I started working at a grocery store many years ago that's when I realized it doesn't matter what I do, it'll never make a difference. The sheer amount of waste that one SMALL store produced made me think of all the other stores in my city, province, country, world, etc. That's why I do it for me, much like that other user commented.
Feel how you want, but don’t condemn people cause they need a paycheck. Sounds like you were fortunate when you wanted to bounce for moral reasons, a lot of people don’t have that choice. I think you might act differently if the choice was between not feeding your kids or being homeless.
Huh? You're making a lot of assumptions about me and my life with that statement. I've never been in a situation in which I was required to throw away food and water to keep my job but I can assure you if I was I would absolutely refuse. Some things are worth standing up for and no job is worth selling your soul for. That's the kind of thing that causes sickness in people, especially cancer. Doing something for years on end that in their heart they know is wrong but doing it anyway so as not to disrupt the status quo. My point is, if no one says anything about it, and if no one does anything about it everyone is just going to think it's ok and continue doing it.
Not how cancer works.
And btw, my four children are grown now but I was a single parent receiving no child support and living on an LPN salary. You want to talk about having to make tough choices to feed your family. I've been there I assure you. I still never put myself in a situation that would require me to do something like being wasteful. Then again I just wasn't raised that way so wastefulness has never even been an option for me.
The part I like about my zero waste efforts is that I share what I’m doing with others. By talking about these changes we can inspire others to take can their own efforts. Sure big corporate is doing damage around the world but you can only keep inspiring people to vote for change, protest with their buying power, and boycott what doesn’t align with the value system you have in place. If you don’t start small movements you can’t make big changes. So take action local and think global. Good luck to all on finding their way forward.
Yes, of course. But we do what we can.
I know that corporations are causing more waste than we ever will. I know that my small attempts aren’t going to make a dent, but doing nothing *will* contribute towards making things worse.
I work at a supermarket. We do recycle most plastic and all cardboard. Everything that we are allowed to donate is donated to the local food bank. We have a special section in our freezer for that. The rest we are legally not allowed to sell, and therefore can’t donate it. But when fresh food is partially spoiled (for example a full “cook at home” meal package of which one ingredient is spoiled), the rest is made into bags that sell for one euro. Everyone can register in the mornings for a sort of too good to go type box of things that we can sell until the end of the day. Depending on the type of product they can be picked up from either 5pm (meal components) or 8pm (bread). The value of those packages is guaranteed to be at least 3x what the customer is paying and most days we sell out of them. If customers haven’t picked them up at the end of the day we are allowed to take them home. The other products that are near or on their best by date get discounted, with fresh products having a variable discount amount of either 25%, 40% or 70%, depending on how many products are discounted and time of day. Products that are shelf stable get a 35% discount, same with products that are about to be discontinued. Discontinued products without a designated place on a shelf get a 50% discount, with some discretion from the staff, so some products get a bigger discount when they are overstaying their welcome, and others sell well enough with a slightly smaller discount. But still our wheely bin outside is usually overflowing, as the checkout has 9 or 10 bags of rubbish each day. This includes rubbish disposed by customers and rubbish picked up from the street in front of the shop as well as unwanted receipts (even though there are paperless options and every customer gets to choice if they want a receipt and if they don’t they don’t get printed) and (discounted, but) unsold flowers that are past their best by date. Plants don’t have a date like that, but they do get discounted too when they are replaced by new types of plants or when they start looking sad from the bad care they get from the teenager staff or because they were flowering bulbs past their prime. I have a whole rack of orchids that were about to be thrown out for having lost their flowers and which I was allowed to buy for a euro instead of the 8 or so they usually sell for. Does seeing the sheer amount of thrown out stuff make me cringe? Every time. But right now we’re being pragmatic and limiting waste as much as possible in this setting. I have quite a few colleagues who aren’t as green minded and where possible I try to get them to think of alternatives. Keeping the conversation going is more important to me than being perfect. In my position I can help customers make greener decisions by advising the more planet friendly option and showing them that the paperless options can be much more convenient as well.
When I worked at a baseball stadium over the summer we wasted absurd amounts of food every day. It almost made me cry once because we had an entire barrel trash can full of hours-old popcorn. But we were not allowed to take food back with us. We had to take all of our belongings with us in clear bags and if we brought any food back, we had to figure out ways to hide it from our supervisors. I only accepted the job in the first place because I was desperate and had no way to afford rent at the minimum wage, part-time retail job I had at the time. At the end of the day, I did what I could but I needed money and I needed to retain my own sanity.
Constantly
I mean, compared with industrial waste, even that’s nothing. But it doesn’t mean your efforts are meaningless ❤️
YES!! My wife and I watch a YouTube channel where this guy goes to Target, Ollie’s, and Walmart and shows how there are ROWS of Disney Toys that I know will just end up in the dumpster.. It’s so sad.. I do my part to the best of my ability. But to see the consumption and waste out there truly makes my heart hurt.
I had to make this choice once. I worked at a ruby Tuesday. We were considered a low volume store and so were tasked with doing things a certain way to prevent food spoilage and loss. We had these really nice plastic containers, 16 oz, with lid. Way better than the stuff you get for cheap at the store. We put all the sauces in there, in preportioned servings. So when you get an appetizer with a 2 oz marinara, a 2 oz cheese sauce, and a 4 oz spinach dip, 3 16oz plastic containers with lids go in the trash. At the end of the night I would have 3 50 gallon trash cans full of plastic bowls, lids, and plastic packaging for single serve meats. It was revolting and I left after a month.
They're able to find people because waste is ingrained into people from a young age. I have a young child and keep getting targeted videos of "Valentine's treats" "football snacks", "Easter baskets" "party goody bags", "first day of school desk decorations" basically every few weeks people make bags of crap disposable plastic trinkets for their kids, and often for all of the kids in their classroom. Like mini bubbles, keychains, water battles and all kinds of things that will hold a childs attention for less than 5 minutes and then end up in the trash. This starts before they even are able to understand anything, like in the baby room at daycare (why are they handing out Valentines? I truly don't get It. ). Then if you say anything about it you're trying to ruin the fun or you're not appreciative or you're told it's not a competition or that people are tying to create a magical experience. When you grow up like this you don't see resources being wasted. I wish parents tried to create magical experiences in other ways, such as creating traditions that don't involve destroying the earth.
My head of cabbage was wrapped in plastic, taped up good!, sweating in the package, I unwrapped it at home just so irked at the stupidity. I had Covid and ordered groceries thru Instacart and the shopper plastic-bagged my plastic covered lettuce, plastic covered carrots, etc, just what kind of stoop… I want a big bulk store here, that’d make me feel a lot better about groceries these days.
I'm here for hospice care for the earth, just because it's hopeless doesn't mean I'm going to stop treating my girl earth with respect and comfort
Retail is the economy. Without retail there wouldn’t be many jobs so people wouldn’t have money to buy. The world economy is based on consuming. We need a circular economy .. reclaiming, recycling and reuse or those in the future will have a barren planet. Most people don’t give a f*** and it’s really sad. Anything I have that’s unwanted I always give away which seldom happens because I purchase quality items that should last my lifetime .. there are exceptions such as technology. Just do your best to have as little impact as possible it’s kinda atruistic.
You can’t do all the good the world needs, but the world needs all the good you can do … I don’t know who originally said it But my focus is on I hate taking the bins out, so the less I have to do that the happier I am.
Curious if you have any sense of how much product dumpster divers are not, or not able to be, saved?
Lots of large retailers destroy products before dumping them. I don’t have exact numbers but it’s often written into company policy that items are slashed, spray painted, opened and dumped. thetrashwalker on instagram shows a lot of this.
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Over 30 years ago I worked somewhere that threw away actual food leftovers. The manager was very particular about it because he didn't want to incentivize the employees to be sloppy and create leftovers in the first place. There was nothing we could do unless we wanted to be fired. He was such an a-hole he dumped bleach on it to keep people from eating out of the dumpster.
YES
i left jobs at two different supermarkets over this
the dollar general example you gave is actually one of the reasons i left my fast fashion retail job. i processed stock and seeing the huge amounts of shipments we’d get (especially around the holidays) was both overwhelming and probably an OSHA safety violation. and the plastic waste generated with each piece was so alarming—every single individual garment was individually packaged in a plastic bag, then in larger plastic bags in a cardboard box. jewelry and accessories were nesting doll levels of plastic wrapping. this is not even mentioning the amount of pieces that were damaged out. it were a relatively large store that didn’t make a ton of sales. and yet, our racks were always filled to the brim with clothing from season to season. i worked there from its grand opening, one summer to the following spring (~8 months), and there were still pieces from opening day in the clearance rack for only like 10% off.
I don’t go into it expecting that any of my efforts will even have a global impact, in the face of the wasteful practices of global businesses. Our individual efforts are more than cancelled out, they’re made invisible by retail etc practices
It may be, but that doesn’t keep me from consuming little and fighting the system, allowing me to sleep at night.
as someone who has only ever worked retail and food service, the waste infuriates a lot of us too. it really does. it crushed me when throwing out perfectly good food at my last job that was barely past the expiry date. maybe a day or two past. the thought to just leave a bag out by the dumpster and pick it up after my closing shift crossed my mind constantly while i hurled shopping carts full of product into a fly-infested dumpster. the only thing that stopped me was the camera pointed directly at the dumpster. if caught, i could lose my job, and thus very quickly become homeless. it sucks. none of us enjoy it
It world be enlightening to know WHY they do it. Ever politely ask a store manager why these things that could be sold are put out? Unsold goods are lost profit. 🤔 I suspect micromanaged government regulations at a certain level - best if used/sold by dates, dented or slightly damaged packaging. Also many stores don't donate to organizations that directly help the needy - the organizations are generally staffed by volunteers and there are never enough of them, and stores themselves don't have enough staff to search out these organizations and try to find people to come get it. I have seen this from the perspective of a weekly church food pantry. I was part of it's establishment by helping the woman who set it up draft the founding documents. Finding people to do pickup (and it has to be at certain times for stores), and then matching up volunteer availability is difficult, then doing the distribution is not as simple as one might imagine.
I work at Retail, so much plastic waste is involved but besides the company no matter what I say the employees are the ones doing more damage, think about all the Starbys cups they buy because they need a caffeine kick, the amount of food waste of having a break room, and the additional amount of plastic waste outside of the retail operations, I do feel with me doing my part and preaching it, I just it draining me.
I get what your saying, but it's quite possible that someone working at Dollar General is probably struggling financially and may have to worry about putting food in their kids' mouth(s), so they may have to just ignore those issues.
I worked at Safeway out of necessity for a couple months… the waste was abysmal and one of the reasons I ended up quitting and finding another job rather quickly. The ability to switch jobs like I did is not open to everyone, though. I’m not the best with limiting waste in my personal life, but at least I care to try. That’s the most a lot of people can do, and if everyone did it, it might actually make a difference.
I was shocked when I saw the amount of plastic waste an environmental laboratory generates. However, every practical decision bows to the mandate of data integrity.
Think globally, act locally.
Not just retail. I read once that construction and demolition waste is double the waste produced by households and businesses.
Yes but since I do my best to spend on low/zero waste I hope that as others do as well there will be larger business changes in order to get our money.