Walmart employee vents after being told customer's request is against company policy: 'Sounds like you have some funky stuff going on at your store'

Many grocers and retailers will give away used cardboard boxes to customers. But some big-box stores are a bit stingy when it comes to discarded boxes, as one Walmart employee recently found out. 

What's happening?

In the r/Walmart subreddit, the employee vented about a frustrating situation at their store when a customer politely asked if they could take some discarded cardboard boxes. 

"Me being the fairly new employee wanted to confirm with somebody else before giving a thumbs up or down," they explained in the post. "Essentially they are waste to us so I doubted that the answer would be NO to that question." 

However, when they asked another worker, they told them it was against store policy to hand them out and shared the information with the customer. The employee felt "extremely bad" about turning the customer away and didn't understand why Walmart would waste the boxes rather than give them to someone who needs them.

"Sounds like you have some funky stuff going on at your store. If a customer asks me or any employee for boxes, the answer is always, 'Help yourself!'" one Walmart employee explained.

"We do let customers have boxes. We just direct them to our bakery/deli or meat/produce associates, and they will give them what they have. We stopped that during COVID but started doing it again. So I guess it is up to the store," another user shared.

While many commenters thought it was strange the store wouldn't give away boxes, others speculated that since Walmart makes money from bales of cardboard, that particular store may not have been keen to lose out on sales. 

Why is business waste concerning?

While many big-box stores — including Walmart — recycle some cardboard boxes, it's not a universal practice. If they don't get recycled, they will most likely end up in landfills buried under other trash. When microorganisms break it down, they produce methane as a byproduct — a potent gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and contributes to the warming climate. 

If companies throw them away, it wastes the water, trees, energy, and labor required to produce cardboard, and can drive up costs for boxes. However, since Walmart sells used cardboard boxes to customers or recycling centers, it's unlikely the ones at the Reddit user's store were destined for the trash.

Is Walmart doing anything about this?

As many commenters said, it's up to each particular store to decide what to do with discarded boxes. Some recycle or sell them, and others offer them from specific departments — such as the bakery or deli — to customers for free. 

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According to Walmart's website, the company takes waste seriously and aims to divert 90% of its operational waste in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico from landfills by the end of 2025. Regarding cardboard specifically, it recycled 5.8 billion pounds of the material in 2023 and reused more than 85 million breakpack boxes in its U.S. supply chain.

It also offers Community Recycling Units at select locations, where customers can bring cardboard, aluminum cans, plastic bottles and bags, and other materials for recycling. 

What else is being done to reduce cardboard waste?

Amazon has partnered with circular packaging companies to reduce shipping waste and switch to more sustainable cardboard boxes. One cafe turned empty cardboard milk cartons into a next-level coffee holder, and a company in the Netherlands built five floating tiny homes out of corrugated cardboard. 

You can also get creative with cardboard at home by laying broken down boxes in your garden to prevent weeds and enrich the soil or using old toilet paper rolls as a nifty way to store loose yarn. It's also important to know the recycling options in your area. If you don't know what to do with extra cardboard, you can never go wrong by recycling it.

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