Growing your own garden produces satisfaction at a minimum and — depending on your results — can also produce food for free. Gardening is a useful opportunity that everyone should have access to.
However, one Walmart employee showed the internet not just wasted product, but wasted opportunities in the form of seed packets being thrown away.
What's happening?
The post appeared in the r/walmart subreddit, where the Reddit user expressed disappointment in their employer.
"Throwing away all these seed packets hurts," the original poster said. "Wish we could just donate them or SOMETHING. While also living in a bumpkin town feeling the guilt of customers asking what we are doing with the seeds sucks too."
The photos show garbage bags full of unopened packets of seeds. There are easily hundreds of packets, possibly even thousands. Some are flowers, but it's not clear whether there may be vegetables or other food items included.
"There's more seeds to throw away than just the photos," added the original poster.
Why are wasted seeds important?
Even if there are only flower seeds in these packets, the simple act of gardening is good for physical and mental health. Plus, it makes your home even more beautiful.
Instead of throwing those seeds out, they could have gone to any number of eager gardeners. They could also have been donated to community organizations.
If they are seeds for edible plants, the loss is even greater. They could have provided free food, saving the grower money while reducing the need to ship fruits and veggies via pollution-generating trucks and trains.
All of that is without considering the wasted money invested in creating the seeds themselves. When stores throw out products that go unsold, they indirectly have to build that into the pricing on items they do sell to compensate. So, every buyer who shopped at Walmart, in a way, paid for those unsold items and many others.
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The cost of installation 💵 Is Walmart doing anything about this?
According to Walmart's sustainability page, the company has set a goal to divert 90% of its waste away from landfills and incineration by this year. It claimed to have been making progress toward that goal as of 2023.
"We aspire to reduce waste in our global operations and work with suppliers, customers, and communities to accelerate the adoption of innovative packaging and products designed for circularity," the page reads.
However, it didn't address the practice of throwing out unsold product, including seeds, and it appears that this practice is still ongoing at least at the discretion of individual store managers.
What can I do to prevent waste?
Unlike other products, commenters suggested that Walmart does not offer discounts on seeds.
You can't rescue seeds from being thrown out by buying them from the bargain bin. However, you can grow your own garden and save money on seeds in the long run by collecting seeds from your produce and from neighbors who may have species that you want to grow.
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