this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2026
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me_irl

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[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

Of course they are.

Corporations always happily invest a billion dollars into wasting natural resources, polluting the environment, and destroying everything you love. As long as it makes them a billion and one dollars. Though even that isn't always needed, and is sometimes more of a nice bonus.

Absolutely batshit crazy that executives of companies like Shell, Tesla, or Nestle are not on death row.

[–] 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Once I worked for Lowe's. A home improvement warehouse.

There was a line of top end fridges. Think like $1900 for each in 1998.

Anyway. Word came down that our stock was discontinued and that we were to destroy them instead of sending them back.

I watched the dock supervisor verify 3x with management both local and corp..

And then run a carpet pole on a forklift through them one at a time and then toss them in the trash.

Absolutely disgusting.

Carpet pole

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

And this was absolutely illegal unless they reclaimed the Freon first. You could have made bank reporting them. It is like 10k an infraction.

[–] PineRune@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I worked for Home Depot for a while. Same thing there. Old stock gets discounted a few times, and if it doesn't sell, it literally goes into their trash compactor (if it fits). When I first started, I spent an entire shift just breaking apart material to fit in the compactor. (That doesn't happen often but usually it's just smaller clearance items that don't sell.)

[–] YellowParenti@lemmy.wtf 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Same. Worked in a warehouse. Getting ready for Christmas, we had like 5 pallets of last year's 55in tvs i had to break. Boss said it's way cheaper for that company to take the loss than bring them back to recycle parts or whatever.

[–] mlg@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

I always thought this was insane when you could just give it to an auction house who deal with selling surplus by taking it off of your hands.

[–] Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 33 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"Are ready"? They've been doing that for years. Nike shoes are cut up before throwing away so people can't salvage them. I've heard of some bakeries pouring chemicals over their leftovers to deter dumpster diving. If they can't sell it, they will actively make it unusable so even the trash can't be salvaged.

[–] Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago

I worked at a high street clothing store in the 10's and all of the clothes on the clearance rack past a certain amount of time was Ragged Out (slashed up with razors and discarded into a locked dumpster)

They wouldn't donate the clothes because it would hurt brand image if poor people were seen slobbing around in them.

[–] Avicenna@programming.dev 9 points 1 day ago

The fact that this practice coexists with the practice of charging money for small packets of sauce really blows my mind. "I am going to squeeze every bit of penny out of you but only when it does not prevent food waste. Food waste is much more fun than earning money."

[–] nosuchanon@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah because unsold inventory is a tax write off, where giving it away is more difficult and leave you liable.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It actually doesn’t though. The law is very clear. It’s just bullshit corpoguzzling loser managers that make that up and say it to make them feel innocent while perpetuating evil.

[–] JackFrostNCola@aussie.zone 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

I think food items may be dangerous and giving them away may still make you liable unless laws were specifically written to protect donations.
Although there is some nuance here, the bakery throwing away the doughnuts and cinnamon scrolls at the end of the day is not the same risk factor as the supermarket throwing away chicken past its "used by" date.

I see absolutely no reason why legislation couldnt be crafted to:

  1. Allow donations of food items without liability if sickness occours due to the age of the food.
  2. Allow companies to write off donations as stock loss (or whatever) so they can claim cost of the food (aquisition costs, not advertised sale price) as a tax deduction, which would incentivise donations as a win for both the donor and recipient.

For non-perishables (clothes, toys, appliances, etc) then just #2 applies.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 22 hours ago

Good news! That’s how the legislation has already been crafted.

[–] trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Dozzi92@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Nah, the English language is just on its way out unfortunately.

At risk of being old man'd, I remember a time in reddit where shit grammar in a post title was a cardinal sin, and now it seems to be a requirement.

[–] MacNCheezus@lemmy.today 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

IDK bro, I see stuff at the grocery store for half off all the time because it’s close to expiry

[–] Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This is my Sat and Sun routine. Get to the grocery store at 8am because they have been open for an hour which gives the employees time to markdown expiring things. I go around the meat and dairy section and get meats and cream at 25-50% off.

Unfortunately others have wised up and do the same, yesterday someone was a few minutes ahead and had a cart full of the discounted meats.

[–] YellowParenti@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I was gifted someone's old smoker. Looks like meal prep is back on.

[–] Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago

Smoked meats is a very nice way to preserve food.

[–] MumboJumbo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Where I work, there are thousands of dollars worth of product that is designated to be disposed of every week. I donate everything that I can to non-profits, mostly Habitat for Humanity because they will come pick it up. Some stuff we're not allowed to donate and we put it outside with our unsecured recycling - I let people know to go take it.