A recent Reddit post with more than a thousand upvotes had people sour over a load of wasted sweets.
In it, the original poster shared a photo allegedly taken at Crumbl Cookies under the words "Crumbl Waste." Below the photo they wrote, "I just wanted to share the amount of cookies my manager made us throw out today because they 'aren't dressed right' ...... personally most look great to me. thoughts?"
Food waste is one of the leading contributors to the overheating of our planet, as it is the single most common material in landfills in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). When food rots in landfills, it releases methane, a toxic planet-warming gas that is more potent in its warming power than carbon dioxide.
The EPA also reported that nearly 40% of the U.S. food supply is wasted annually, and Move for Hunger reports that the restaurant industry alone wastes more than 11 million tons per year.
It's not just the final product that's wasted, either. The resources used to make it are also wasted, with more environmental harm done the further along in the process the food is wasted. Upward of 85% of the heat-trapping gases created by food waste come from activities prior to disposal, such as the transportation of the food and the resources that went into growing the food, according to the EPA.
Aside from the harm it does to the environment, throwing away seemingly good food when more than 34 million Americans experience food insecurity seems even more wrong.
Many restaurants don't donate food due to liability issues, but this appears to be changing. In the meantime, businesses can take other measures to mitigate the amount of food wasted.
Per the original poster's comment on the photo, commenters had a lot of thoughts.
One said, "This is disgusting….. they look fine to me."
"Wow that's actually so terrible. What a ridiculous amount of food waste. I would understand if it was for a genuine health code violation, but this reason for waste is awful," said another.
But perhaps it was said best when this user simply said, "This makes me so sad. So incredibly wasteful."
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