A company turned a dumpster into a veritable cornucopia of fruit, causing one person to take to social media to air their frustration.
The employee shared a picture of the overflowing receptacle on Reddit in the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, giving others a glimpse at what appear to be perfectly yellow bananas and unbruised apples in the trash.
"My company loves to throw away half a day old fruit," they wrote.
"Oh wow. This is incredibly infuriating," another Redditor added.
"Those bananas do not even look ripe smh. Why wouldn't they just offer them at a reduced price? Or donate them to schools??? Or homeless shelters??? Or literally [anywhere]????" another person asked.
For everyone's safety, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does have strict regulations regarding the handling and storage of food, with the growth of illness-causing bacteria one consideration.
Some grocers have rallied in unideal circumstances to prevent the waste of products that would soon surpass safe temperatures.
A Trader Joe's gave away thousands of dollars' worth of food after its refrigeration system stopped working, while a Kroger in Arkansas enlisted the aid of a food bank during a power outage.
The nonprofit Feeding America noted that 44 million people in the United States struggle with hunger but around one-third of food goes in the trash.
The breakdown of food in landfills produces methane, a powerful heat-trapping gas. According to the World Wildlife Fund, "the production of lost or wasted food generates the equivalent of 32.6 million cars' worth" of planet-warming pollution in the U.S.
It's unclear what situation led to the photo posted by the OP. However, it might be motivation for some to think about the ways they shop for and store fresh food in order to cut down on waste, with composting an eco-friendly option for inedible scraps.
"Give it to a processing plant and they'll make it concentrated paste or juice, you would even get paid for it," one Redditor commented on the original post. "What a waste."
"That could feed 250 people," another said.
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