rayc89•24d ago

Went to the local landfill and it totally shifted how I think about food waste

I dropped off some old furniture at the transfer station in Burlington last Saturday and while I was there, I walked past the dumpsters. I couldn't believe how much perfectly good food was tossed-whole bags of apples, unopened yogurt containers, still-sealed bread loaves. It hit me that my little efforts at home like composting feel pointless when grocery stores and restaurants are throwing out thousands of pounds daily. Has anyone else had a moment like that where you realized the scale of the problem is way bigger than individual habits?

2 comments

2 Comments

perry.jessica24d ago

Oh man, my compost bin is basically a shrine to my failed meal plans.

brookefox24d ago

Tbh I get what you're saying but I think blaming grocery stores lets us off the hook too easy. Yeah they waste a ton but my household throws away like 30% of what we buy because we're lazy about meal planning or buy stuff we don't actually eat. I took a food waste challenge last year where I tracked every single thing I tossed and it was embarrassing how much of it was my own fault. Grocery store waste is a system problem for sure but fixing my own habits still matters cause it adds up with enough people.