It's always discouraging to see how much food grocery stores throw away on a regular basis — with much of it being perfectly edible.
One video recently posted to the r/composting subreddit showed a bunch of produce from Walmart getting dumped at a composting facility. (You can watch the clip here or at the embed at the bottom.)
"Walmart food waste getting dumped at our facility. I feel like Walmart should invest in a juicer. This stuff looks legit!" the caption read.
The post sparked something of a debate on the subreddit, with many posters finding themselves conflicted. Although getting the produce composted is much preferred to sending it straight to a landfill, it is not the ideal use of food either.
"Part of me is glad that it isn't going straight to landfill, but part of me really wishes this produce was going to a food bank or a charity to make meals for those in need first," wrote one commenter.
"This is so hard to watch," another person wrote.
The original poster defended their composting operation.
"It's all good," they wrote in response to one comment. "It makes really good compost that makes more wonderful plants and vegetables. Full circle is so fun!"
"This truck shows up once a week. It's four different Walmarts'. And every ounce gets composted," they added in another comment. "Fun stuff!"
If the food being dumped here was rotten and unfit for human consumption, then composting it was certainly the best option (apart from more careful planning and buying to lessen food waste in the first place).
However, if it was still edible — and there have been many instances of stores trashing perfectly edible food — then it is a shame to see it discarded like this. In the United States, 34 million people, including nine million children, face hunger. Many of them could benefit from food banks or community organizations getting their hands on the food that grocery stores regularly throw away.
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