While not all retail waste is avoidable — think spoiled food — a great deal results from lax inventory management and policies.

Home Depot has come under fire for non-food waste in its garden center, prompting a string of objections on Reddit. 

What's happening?

On Reddit's r/HomeDepot, a user took issue with the home improvement giant's decision to trash a cart overflowing with seemingly healthy plants.

"The amount of stuff this company throws away already irritates me, but the fact that they probably could have planted these or given them away … is messed up," the original poster said.

The user didn't explicitly state they worked for Home Depot. They did, however, later refer to "their store," suggesting they were an employee privy to day-to-day waste-handling procedures.

Fellow Home Depot employees and vendors echoed the original poster's frustration, sharing their own experiences with waste at various locations.

"All of the plant tables in our garden department are full and I have about 30 more full plant racks," one confessed. "I already know most of those will go straight from the racks to the trash and never even see a chance to sell."

"Worked here 11 years and I am still not used to seeing all these plants go down the dumpster," another admitted.

"Plant vendor here. We are under INTENSE pressure from the company to not have anything in the store that isn't in near perfect condition," a third Reddit user said, adding that aesthetic appeal was one reason for excessive plant waste.

Why is Home Depot's plant waste so important?

Going by the Reddit thread alone, plant waste is pervasive across Home Depot locations. This is largely due to corporate policies and agreements with plant vendors.

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Home Depot isn't the only big box store to repeatedly incite internet ire over its disposal of perfectly good plants. Walmart has sparked similar outrage more than once.

Standard food waste in retail environments is often the result of equipment failures and spoilage. In this case, the Home Depot plants were on the opposite end of the food waste spectrum. They weren't given the chance to become food.

According to gardening tech site Gardenary, a single tomato plant could conservatively produce more than two dozen tomatoes. Dedicated tending can create as many as 100. 

Another gardening site, Albopepper, indicated that individual tomato plants can produce 50 pounds of fruit when well-tended.

Is Home Depot doing anything about this?

Although it's evidently not a company-wide practice, in 2021, Home Depot touted its efforts to compost some unsold plant materials, which is a start.

The retailer also appears to accept empty plastic plant pots for recycling, which diverts plastic from landfills.

However, Home Depot's general sustainability goals did not appear to contain any measures to curb plant waste.

What's being done about retail waste more broadly?

Competitor Lowe's marks down plants to combat waste, and shoppers report that the retailer sometimes offers discounts on wilting plants.

Composting food scraps and yard debris is one approach Home Depot has dabbled in. The restaurant chain Chipotle has composted some food waste as well.

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