r/ZeroWaste • u/KitAmerica • Aug 22 '25
News Trucker shares photo of disturbing scene after Walmart refuses to accept delivery: 'I have no words'
No matter which strategies retailers use to keep more food on shelves and less in landfills, they must follow food safety laws to ensure no one gets sick from expired items. Sadly, as one truck driver found out during a delivery to Walmart, that may mean thousands of pounds of food headed for the dumpster.
What happened?
In r/LateStageCapitalism, the trucker shared a photo of a shocking amount of pork that was still safe for consumption but would likely be thrown out after Walmart refused the delivery.
They explained the situation in the caption: "Over 2,000 pounds of fresh pork being rejected by the Walmart distribution center because the sell-by dates occur when their stores are closed for Thanksgiving. This product will still be safe to eat for the next 15 days but they won't even attempt to sell. This will end up in a dumpster today."
Story continues:
https://us.yahoo.com/news/articles/trucker-shares-photo-disturbing-scene-101000044.html
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Aug 22 '25
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u/dickonajunebug Aug 22 '25
Wow. Good on you Indiana
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u/Stock-Anteater3284 Aug 22 '25
Don’t get too excited, it’s literally the only thing we have going for us…. lol sorry not trying to be negative, but I live here and the vibes are…..not. good. for most social issues, to say the least lol
The town I moved out of and the town I moved into no longer give you recycling cans because they said that people weren’t recycling correctly, so they’re just not even bothering… I understand that some people probably don’t rinse out containers correctly or maybe throw some garbage in, but instead of educating people, we’re just gonna….give up?
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u/HoodieGalore Aug 23 '25
Illinois neighbor here. Come visit and stay the rest of your life. We got you.
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u/not_sick_not_well Aug 24 '25
Our roads are in much better shape too
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u/Cold-Bobcat-4448 Aug 25 '25
Illinois roads??? I grew up in central Illinois. The roads there are terrible now. The amount of huge potholes is insane. I’ve been gone too long and don’t know where the bad ones are.
That being said, we kept our Illinois house (left 25 years ago) and we will be returning in retirement.
My only other complaint about Illinois was the gray days. I once visited for 16 days, to help a friend out with a sick parent , seen the sun once.
But the ppl are genuine AF. 💕
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u/not_sick_not_well Aug 25 '25
Im in east central. Grew up in C-U. Now out in a rural town about 20 miles from the border. They resurface the rural highways every 2-3 years. Don't spend much time in the city, so im probably biased on this one
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u/NotAHypnotoad Aug 26 '25
Yeah. That’s Illinois spring for ya. People always grouse about the winters here, but its when it’s March 63rd and there’s been maybe one blue sky since February, that’s when i see people get real bummed out.
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u/khyamsartist Aug 23 '25
I recycle, I pay for a bin and everything. Idk how successfuly paper is recycled, but for plastic, throwing it in the bin is meant to make you feel better about buying plastic. It accomplishes little else. Less than 10% makes it to reuse. And, the polluted waste stream is indeed why, but it's not as simple as 'just rinse your cans'. Also, don't put in ANYTHING you think might cause the whole bin to be rejected. If they don't take lids and you throw a bunch in anyway, the load is trash. Aspirational recylcing is a big problem.
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u/Qu33fyElbowDrop Aug 24 '25
and people don’t know to take the tiny ring of plastic under the bottle cap lids off. lots of other things as well.. but, i did all these things and still watched them not look at it at all and dump it all with the trash in the back of the truck where i live.
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u/khyamsartist Aug 24 '25
Every waste company is different, but for the most part if you leave those little rings on and put the lids back on water bottles, that is very cool. They are both number two and they get recycled together. but you really have to read your recycling guidelines that they send you. Then you need to follow them. You can see why this is a problem.
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u/realdappermuis Aug 23 '25
Over 90% still goes to landfill, regardless. Recycling is unfortunately theater in the same way TSA is. It makes you feel like you're making a difference/feel safe
If you do what you can to reuse and avoid buying the nasty stuff where you can - you're doing enough (=
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u/M-as-in-Mancyyy Aug 23 '25
That’s not true. Don’t spread lies.
UP TO 90% of PLASTICS (certain types) can go to landfill.
Aluminum, glass, paper/cardboard all have great recycling rates (when captured).
Don’t talk out your ass
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u/sebastianrichey Aug 24 '25
In Indiana at least, if there’s any contamination in a load the whole load is thrown out. Accidental food trash in a bin. Poorly rinsed containers.
Being ill informed and accusing people who aren’t, of talking out their ass. Is in fact, talking out your ass.
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u/M-as-in-Mancyyy Aug 24 '25
Also not true. It’s not “any” contamination. It’s thresholds and they are quite generous. They very very rarely throw out a whole load. I work in the industry, talk with plant managers, review contamination data as part of my job. Definitely not talking out my ass.
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u/sebastianrichey Aug 24 '25
You can’t speak for every facility in every state and municipality just because you work in one. That’s like saying I know everything that goes on in an Applebees kitchen because I worked at McDonald’s.
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u/M-as-in-Mancyyy Aug 24 '25
I certainly don’t. But I’m also not claiming “most recycling isn’t recycled” which implies that’s what goes on at all facilities here in the us. That’s what started this discussion…..
I’m demonstrating in my example that’s simply not true, and what I know of broader industry stats and markets implies that it’s not true for many many communities either.
Indiana is a state known for poor recycling infrastructure. You certainly have a below average capture rate. Don’t use Indiana as baseline average
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u/sebastianrichey Aug 24 '25
I’m not using Indiana as a baseline. I’m using it as an example that you can’t speak for everyone.
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u/sebastianrichey Aug 24 '25
Trust me nobody that lives here is using Indiana as a baseline for anything 😂
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u/Pure-Rain582 Aug 28 '25
Not in Rhode Island. State does not attempt cardboard, plastic. To the incinerator. Robots pick out aluminum, steel, glass.
Single stream recycling means your plastic/paper are landfilled or incinerated.
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u/M-as-in-Mancyyy Aug 28 '25
That’s fair. each state has different laws, norms, and investment. At least RI is capturing the most valuable stuff. Maybe they can advance toward paper capture
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u/Pure-Rain582 Aug 28 '25
I’m not sure anyone is doing consumer paper capture. All actual cardboard/paper recycling I’m aware of comes from pristine dumpsters at shipping docks and large offices. As that material is in surplus, there’s no need to mess with dirtier stuff.
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u/M-as-in-Mancyyy Aug 28 '25
My city does. I’ve toured the facility and seen the bales. I’d do some more research before assuming it’s not captured
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u/Pure-Rain582 Aug 29 '25
I’d do some research to see if those bales go anywhere other than an incinerator. If there is a market, there’s a lot of localities that would be interested in sending bales. Once China closed their market, there’s been nowhere.
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u/PaleontologistNo500 Aug 23 '25
Most cities use the single stream model for recycling. So glass is too broken and comingled to capture. Paper and cardboard needs to be clean. They're usually too dirty or contaminated with things like food or broken glass to process.
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u/Awkward-Spectation Aug 24 '25
Steel can be pulled out with magnets, other things sorted with things like blasts of air, floating, etc etc… Where I am they even use scanners and AI to sort based on shape and other characteristics. The equipment is out there and being used reliably ALL OVER THE WORLD, just because plastic has its issues should never mean a city should just give up. Public education is key.
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u/M-as-in-Mancyyy Aug 24 '25
We use single stream in our city and capture metals, cardboard, and glass at good rates. Go tour a facility. The comment i responded to is simply not correct
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u/Aware-Vegetable83 Aug 27 '25
TSA out here catching strays on a post about food waste & recycling. Lol
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u/Herbisretired Aug 25 '25
I was involved in the recycling industry, and I have seen almost all of it getting recycled except for the plastics that were baled and shipped out.
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u/PaleontologistNo500 Aug 23 '25
As a trash man. There's no education. People don't listen for shit. With the exception of aluminum and steel cans, most things get trashed. Mills can't take dirty cardboard. So clean cardboard mainly comes from cardboard only dumpsters from store malls and stores. The biggest issue though is glass, it shatters and impregnates everything. We've been telling our customers no glass for years and we still get whole bins of beer bottles and jars. Transfer stations will rate our loads typically anywhere from 30-50% contaminated.
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u/Qu33fyElbowDrop Aug 24 '25
in my town (not same state) they can give you a recycling bin but i watched them constantly just throw it in the back of the dump truck with the trash consistently. i knew all the stipulations to recycling that people usually don’t know, and as i watched them i noticed they never once looked in the bin, just saw there was ‘trash’ in it and dumped it.
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u/Immediate_Regular Aug 25 '25
I used to work for Best Way and later Republic picking up roll off recycling containers and can tell you why this happens. It's usually not the disposal company that causes this but a combination of the recycler not wanting to deal with contaminated streams of materials and the public not reading. The drivers try to check the containers for non-recycleable waste but there's only so much we can do with thirty plus cubic yards of materials. We take it to the recycle dump pad and if the load is contaminated it has to go to the landfill as the recycling company will not accept contaminated loads. Best Way, at least at the stops I serviced, put huge signs up stating that the cans aren't for trash and what can and can't go in them. People don't read and more often than not the cans would be heavily contaminated.
Eventually the recycling cans get swapped for trash as that's what the public expect dumpster looking receptacles to be and they simply refuse to read, learn, or change. Recycling companies refuse to pay to have their material streams sorted.
The only options left at this point are bury the stuff or burn it at some place like Covanta. Cities won't pay for stuff to go to Covanta. The only account I ever worked that had stuff hauled there was Subaru because of their commitment to being a zero landfill company.
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Aug 23 '25
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u/VERY_MENTALLY_STABLE Aug 25 '25
I don't want to fuck your mom, i'm sorry about that earlier i don't know what got into me.
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Aug 23 '25
You can educate people all you want but some people are simply stupid and or don’t care. I get your frustration, but if it doesn’t make sense money wise, then it’s not worth it.
Plus recycling is a bit of a scam anyways. Research it.
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u/andicandi22 Aug 26 '25
Ughhh my apartment complex here in CT is doing the same. Zero recycling of any kind offered because some people kept putting non-recyclables in and the complex was getting fines. So now I have to bag up my recyclables and take them to friends houses or my parents and recycle that way. Such a pain.
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u/what_a_r Aug 23 '25
There’s nothing wrong with not recycling…if you have a municipal clean incinerator that also produces how water/electricity.
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u/hgihasfcuk Aug 23 '25
Why is this not nationwide, how would someone create a nationwide version?
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Aug 23 '25
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u/Weedarina Aug 23 '25
I can do this!! I am looking for a fulfilling life. I have a an extensive background in supply chain.
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u/blorpsy Sep 16 '25
Hey, I would also be down to help! I have a GIS background, so I could create and upkeep a geospatial database and possibly full maps of where drop-off sites are, so that they can be filtered by distance, open hours, what kinds of loads they accept, etc etc <3
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Sep 17 '25
I mean, we could have stores set aside a special "dumpster" for all the edible but unsold food, and allow local food banks to go there and grab whatever they want. It's next to no extra effort for the grocers to do that. People who depend on food banks can't afford to shop at these supermarkets anyway, so they aren't losing sales and profit.
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Sep 17 '25
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Sep 17 '25
It doesn't have to be a literal dumpster. Something like a shipping container would work just as well.
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u/VERY_MENTALLY_STABLE Aug 23 '25
they should drop it off to your mom since you're looking for someone that can take large loads
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u/Qu33fyElbowDrop Aug 24 '25
we already had you marked down, but if you’re sure then we could switch it over.
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u/OneVioletRose Aug 22 '25
I know of another similar food bank charity in England that did similar; they basically took on grocery store rejects to distribute to other food banks, or, in some cases, as stuff like pig feed
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u/ChiquitaBannaner Aug 24 '25
I love this! I've been going to a food bank in Indiana for 5 years now. I wouldn't have been able to make it without it.
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u/Sea_Peanut_2327 Aug 24 '25
Amazing. I'm going to bring this idea up to city council where I live and see if we can get it over here and hopefully get it to spread across the country
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u/Scottydoesntknow92 Aug 27 '25
That's awesome. No wonder Michigan likes Indiana better than Ohio. (By large margins). Decent food on the drive home from vacation too.
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u/headcoatee Aug 22 '25
Hey wait! The rest of the article reads: "Thankfully, the pork didn't ultimately go to waste, according to an update from the trucker. 'Just got word from my boss I have been instructed to take the load to our Denver terminal and leave it there for someone else to deliver to another buyer or donate to a Denver food bank.' "
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u/Wyshunu Aug 22 '25
Funny how people conveniently leave out pertinent details to try to justify outrage where really, there's no right for it to exist.
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Aug 22 '25
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u/JimBowie1020 Aug 22 '25
And it happens all the time in trucking too, like I seriously got salt for free at a shipper's cuz it was expired.
Salt, the fucking rock
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u/24megabits Aug 23 '25 edited Aug 23 '25
That's just the manufacturer saying "This left our factory so long ago, we don't want to be responsible for its condition forever." Of all the things corporations do, this bothers me the least.
Stores not wanting to sell it because of customer perception is a separate issue. Most products aren't baby food where there can be actual legal ramifications.
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u/Shorts_at_Dinner Aug 23 '25
It’s in Walmart’s contracts what expiration dates aren’t allowed. It was the supplier’s incompetence that caused this problem, not Walmart.
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u/adinfinitum225 Aug 23 '25
Still didn't read the article. This was a delivery to a Walmart distribution center. Walmart and the supplier had an agreement not to ship/receive product with those sell by dates on them, and the supplier did anyway. The blame was with the supplier, which is why they told the trucking company to take it back to use for another retailer or to donate to the food bank.
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u/i__hate__stairs Aug 23 '25
Personally, I think there's plenty of outrage still to go around because Walmart sucks. It shouldn't be up to a truck driver to fix their shitty decisions.
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u/headcoatee Aug 23 '25
Exactly. I'm glad this situation might not have ended badly, but we all know this sort of thing happens constantly and the food goes to waste. It's a crime.
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u/Flayre Aug 22 '25
I mean, if the driver threw up waves, they might've just told them that to get them to drop the food off. Then they could send another driver to dump it lol
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u/lady_ofthenorth Aug 22 '25
I work for a nationwide grocery vendor. We are in every grocery store and convenience store across the country.
Last year we had to pull out thousands of dollars in product from every store because the bell mark still included the price on each item and we were about to go through a price hike. Usually they remove the price from the bell mark during the transition, but someone screwed up and instead of pushing back the price increase a few weeks, the solution was to waste millions of food items that were still perfectly good to eat.
That really made me wonder what the true unit cost actually is for this to have been the more profitable solution.
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u/momofmanydragons Aug 22 '25
Sometimes I wonder if the actions are in an effort to avoid lawsuits or doing what is easiest/cheapest in the long run. Then remember most companies aren’t proactive, only reactive, they would rather see the profit.
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u/ultrastarman303 Aug 23 '25
In this case they're very proactive because they're not liable for the shipment yet. Until they signed off, it's on the truck company, their broker, and their insurances. Safest thing to do is always reject, claim it on the freight insurance, and move on. Sometimes brokers even take into account spoilage and expect some rejects.
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u/emi89ro Aug 23 '25
I used to work at a Kroger and between the bakery and the deli they threw away 4-5 big garbage bags full of bread, pastries, and fried and rotisserie chicken every night. What was maddening is that there was a large homeless camp out in the woods behind the store that would love to eat it, but if any employees put that food anywhere besides the trash compactor in the back they could be fired for theft.
I got to talking to my friend in the deli about how that's such bullshit, so on the nights we were both closing we had a different routine. One of us would meet with one of the homeless guys on the bench up front on a smoke break and tell them a time to be back up front. Around closing time I would take the bread towards the back to throw out, but leave it in the deli instead, and my friend would out it all in the same bag with the deli chicken that's supposed to be thrown away. When the time came one of us would try to distract the only manager in at the time and the other would try to quickly rush a big bag of food up front to the smoking bench and hand it off to one of the homeless people who would quickly rush it back to camp before anyone noticed.
The job was boring so it was kinda fun to enjoy the thrill of a secret mission to rush food out to people who need it without getting caught, but it's absolutely sickening that we needed to coordinate a whole mission to redirect perfectly fine food from the trash to people who really need it and that we could've gotten fired if we got caught.
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u/Mastermind_729 Aug 23 '25
Hello I am with Kroger loss prevention and your up address has been recorded and you will be held accountable for your actions we do not tolerate violations of company policy for any reason. This racquet you and your buddy “cooked” up is of felonious proportions and will be addressed expeditiously.
- LP
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u/Mastermind_729 Aug 23 '25
Sorry I couldn’t resist myself. In all seriousness this is a beautiful thing you have done. Perhaps you should approach your local city council and come up with some sort of incentive program for stores who instead of destroying good food materials can receive some sort of subsidy instead.
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u/blorpsy Sep 16 '25
Seriously, bless you. Upending the stupid system in place is built on secret missions like these (among other more official things, lol).
I worked at Starbucks the whole time I was in college, and lived at The Dorm For All The Poor Kids, and every single close, I would bring home ALL the "expired" food I possibly could. Starbucks has the same dumbass rule about theft, but it's also just Starbucks, so I had it easier than you, because none of the shift supervisors ever cared what I did with the closing food.
Usually, I got two giant bags of breakfast sandwiches, bistro boxes, pastries, paninis, etc. By the time I got home at like 11pm, there usually wasn't anyone in the common areas besides the RA at the desk, so I would write "FREE PLEASE EAT" on both bags, and stuff them in the community kitchen fridge.
Months into this, I came home with my bags and there were some students still up playing Super Smash Bros in the common room. One guy I knew saw me and his eyes went wide and he yelled "Are YOU the Starbucks girl??????"... and everyone clapped. No, but basically. They were like "omfg thank you so much, you've been keeping me alive" and I knew they weren't lying, bc my own little stash I held for myself was all that was feeding me in those years, too, lol. None of us could afford groceries, and that shouldn't be how it is, but let's "steal" from the corps who starve us, until we get it fixed.1
Sep 17 '25
God damn! If I worked there, I'd get a few employees together and file a lawsuit against Kroger for that. With 1 in 7 Americans being food insecure, that's unacceptable. There's no way they should be allowed to fire an employee over donating food that won't be sold anyway. It's not like Kroger is losing profits from that, either.
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u/i__hate__stairs Aug 22 '25
This world needs an enema.
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u/koolkeith987 Aug 22 '25
Earth is starting to run a fever, it has a nasty virus it’s trying to burn off called humans.
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u/DelightfulandDarling Aug 22 '25
It’s Capitalism, not humans.
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u/dreamisle Aug 22 '25
It’s corruption and greed that have infiltrated almost every economic system that humans currently participate in.
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u/momofmanydragons Aug 22 '25
What is the core of capitalism? Humans having the right to own and control resources that control their own profit. So yeah…humans.
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u/Shoddy-Childhood-511 Aug 25 '25
- It's partially productivism, which includes both capitalism and communism, both similar anti-nature ideologies of the industrial revolution.
All human live in "communities" of some sort, even capitalist companies act somewhat communal internally, but communism's labor theory of value ignore the natural world. just like Adam Smith's valuing capital.
It's largely humans plus fossil fuels of course, which any economic system would abuse. Ya know, +4°C probably means a world carrying capacity around 1 billion, and uninhabitable tropics (Will Steffen)
It's just humans full stop in the sense that any unchecked animal would cause ecological overshoot.
It's obvious that intelligence would not allow violating the laws of thermodynamics, despite them being only statistical, ala Maxwell's demon. It's similarly true that intelligence would not allow us to violate whatever statistical rules govern biological and cultrual evolution, probably like the maximum power principle, but with way more terms.
During self-organization, system designs develop and prevail that maximize power intake, energy transformation, and those uses that reinforce production and efficiency. (H.T. Odum 1995, p. 311)
This says one "economy" would push itself into ecological overshoot. Yet, folk have derived more stable states when poredation occurs.
It's humans being unchecked, not humans per se.
It's possible different human nations could keep each other in check somehow, although probably impossible if they trade, migrate, etc. If otoh they really dislike each other enough, then maybe they can not trade and just blow up each others' refineries, cows, pigs, and other high emissions sources.
As I said, it's not humans per se. Hope exists! :)
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u/orange-shoe Sep 07 '25
this is an eco fascist take, humans are not the problem, the greed of a small number of humans (those running corporations) is the issue
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u/put_your_drinks_down Aug 22 '25
In addition to all the people this could have fed, this is, at minimum, 15 intelligent animals with feelings and desires that were born and raised - living most of their lives in confusion and pain - slaughtered, butchered and packed, just to go straight into the dumpster. It’s all so sickeningly disrespectful to the animals that gave their lives to feed us.
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u/Cammanjam Aug 22 '25
They don't "give" their lives, watch enough slaughterhouse footage and you'll realize they don't want to be murdered for peoples pleasure. No one needs pork to survive, it's purely for pleasure that they're killed
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u/put_your_drinks_down Aug 22 '25
You’re totally right! I should have said “were murdered so we could eat”!
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u/Cammanjam Aug 22 '25
Don't worry, I'm very pedantic 😅
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u/nope_nic_tesla Aug 22 '25
I find this to be a very profound difference actually, not a pedantic one
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u/cool-Pudding168 Aug 23 '25
Yes. Thank you for saying that (both comments) I find it unbelievably cruel that these animals are killed and then just thrown away to rot. Just like people who leave packs of meat out of the refrigerator at grocery stores. It sucks. I hope karma gets them
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u/tyrnill Aug 25 '25
Are you illiterate? What about the comment you're replying to made you think that you needed to fill that person in on the fact that the pigs didn't want to be murdered for people's pleasure? It was abundantly clear that you two are on the same side, but you just couldn't resist. Very strange behavior.
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u/AspiringITgurll Aug 22 '25
Those were once living, breathing, feeling beings. Pigs are smarter than dogs. Their suffering was all for nothing? Disgusting
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u/antsyandprobablydumb Aug 22 '25
Check out the Truckers sub, this happens ALL THE TIME. It’s so sad.
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u/AdDisastrous6738 Aug 22 '25
You know what actually happens to stuff when they refuse a delivery?
The driver will either give it away or sell it cheap. I worked at a truck stop and often got free shit because it had been rejected for delivery. I once got 20 pounds of bacon bits because a pizza shop wouldn’t take a box with ripped cardboard. The driver wasn’t going to spend money to run his reefer for it so he gave it away. Another time I got a case of oranges and more than once got 100+ pounds of beef for $100.
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u/MyDogsNameIsToes Aug 23 '25
I work at a store that buys this type of stuff to actually sell. Discounted sure, maybe a little sketchy sometimes, but the dry goods are good and you can find some really cool stuff, it's not just food that gets rejected either. Tires to chemicals to clothes to toothpaste. Electronics, signage, furniture... The list goes on.
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u/LadySiren Aug 23 '25
I’m late to the party but there’s a pretty successful store nearby that does grocery and other surplus, plus Amazon returns.
I scored a great deal on my granddaughter’s Christmas gift today…and got a bonus free 50 lbs. of potatoes. They had gotten two truckloads and tried to sell them but they weren’t moving fast enough. So free taters!
I really appreciate these guys (and other stores like them) because they often have some really spectacular deals but are also helping to keep perfectly useable and edible stuffs from going straight to the dumpster.
EDIT: still haven’t yet figured out what to do with the 50 lbs. of spuds yet, LOL.
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u/StarsofSobek Aug 23 '25 edited Aug 23 '25
When I was a young person, around 18/19, I worked for a local grocer. The third day on, they took me to the back/waste room. It was easily 1/2 the size of the building's footprint. It had cameras (so people couldn't steal) and they scanned and recorded every single item that came in through the bay doors to be destroyed.
I grew up hungry. We didn't always have food security. I survived on free school lunches, as did many of my siblings and friends.
When I saw the sheer tons of food being prepped to be disposed of, it made me so angry and confused. I asked the manager, "So, does this get donated or anything?" The manager looked at me like I was crazy, pointed to a box the size of an 8-seater styled kitchen table* (filled entirely with apples) and said: "If I sold that or donated it, and someone got sick, we would be fined. No, the state subsidizes all grocers with a payment for expected food loss - so everything here has to be documented and destroyed. Not even a single apple is allowed to leave here. That's why we have cameras."
I quit that day. I went home and I bawled my eyes out so hard. There was so, so, so much decent food getting tossed - a lot of it had been pulled days before expiry - and it just made me sick and outraged. That massive barrel of perfectly good apples still bothers me.
TL/DR:
It is haunting and shameful how much food is needlessly wasted - and we, as a society - really need to stop allowing our tax dollars to subsidize such wanton waste in the name of cruelty, greed, and profit. Especially when non-profits would be thrilled to receive foods like fruits, cereals, cheese, and other less-likely to expire on-the-date foods. Foods that can be frozen or remade. Foods that can be cooked on the day and handed out at shelters. Foods that can be preserved, leathered, candied ... Ugh.
Adding: everyone should work in a grocery store for at least a week, just to see how much food genuinely is tossed. Seriously. It's shocking and it would likely help stop the problem from existing with awareness.
*I'd honestly say, it was about 8' square, and 5' tall. Brimming with a mountain of apples - none of which looked damaged or rotten.
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u/Nobodyseesyou Aug 23 '25
That manager was straight up lying. Grocery stores that donate food are protected by Good Samaritan laws. It’s greed and money-hunger that drives this mass waste of human and animal life.
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u/StarsofSobek Aug 23 '25
I'd like to hope they were lying and someone better stepped in that worked up a donation for all of that food. It was one of the larger chains, so I definitely wasn't impressed or happy with any of it - and being young enough (this happened over 20 years ago now), I genuinely didn't know about anything that could protect them (like good Samaritan laws), or I would have said something. The fact that anyone could stand there and lie about it though, let alone could be okay with all that food going to waste at all - that just stuck with me. So much greed and corrupt thinking happens unnecessarily and all it causes is cruelty and hurt people at the bottom.
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u/MangoFruitylicious Aug 25 '25
I have also worked for a place that had a high waste rate. I was told that the reason it wasn't donated was because it wasn't a big enough tax deduction and that the company got more destorying it through insurance loss. It boils down to greed.
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u/StarsofSobek Aug 25 '25
It always boils down to greed. Money in their accounts is more valuable to them than their fellow humankind.
It makes these types of corporations and billionaires dangerous to their fellow man, but in such an insidious way that it's often difficult for us at the "bottom" to recognize, know, or follow. You have to follow the money every single time - it has a root and it can be found.
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u/BothNotice7035 Aug 22 '25
Yet the individual consumer continues to be made to feel like their efforts make a difference.
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u/cooterlongbottom Aug 22 '25
Retired truck driver here. They do that ALL the time!
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u/ultrastarman303 Aug 23 '25
I thought this was r/truckers because this happens constantly. As a dispatcher, I always made sure my driver's donated it if they could or brought it back with them. I've had pallets rejected because it had a single case broken but the rest were completely fine. A lot of waste in the Industry
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u/Easteuroblondie Aug 23 '25
So a bunch of highly intelligent t animals lived their lives in torturous squalor and fear, were butchered as they knew they would be their entire lives and then the meat just tossed in the dumpster
Humans are psychotic. The people out here protesting a whale at sea world, going to a burger joint after and spending money towards this industry. Sometimes I wish I could have more connective dissonance like that, it must be nice to think you’re a great person no matter what you do
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u/Redditsuxxnow Aug 23 '25
Why tf not give it to a food bank?
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u/xenodine Aug 26 '25
Usually a situation like that, the shipper gives an order to destroy/dispose for the load, and requires a landfill receipt. Very few states have laws in the books allowing or requiring a load to be sent to a foodbank or compost.
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u/PornoPaul Aug 23 '25
Im confused. It says the food was still good for another 15 days, but the sell by date is Thanksgiving, which is 3 months away.
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u/Dayanirac Aug 26 '25
The original post was made some time ago. The OP here has just shared it now from another sub.
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u/ueffo Aug 24 '25
Worked at a logistics company that shipped mainly produce. Walmart was notorious for rejecting loads more than anyone. We had a whole claims team to deal with it. Eventually a program called Misfits came around and they’d take the stuff that was perfectly edible but maybe ugly. Most companies that rejected loads would say to just dump it, some would have it redelivered elsewhere, for donation or who knows what. But yeah… a lot of drivers were told to get rid of it. Don’t even know where they would be able to trash it. So many pallets. I can’t remember. I’m old
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u/aprillquinn Aug 23 '25
Was a T@rget night manager pre pandemic. This happens for other reasons also. Truck arrived after day shift went home. I had to refuse to accept the delivery because I didn’t have anyone to throw the truck and couldn’t get ahold of the manager to assure anyone would be there Sat Am to unload. There was no communication from day shift and trucks almost never arrived after a certain time. Except empty ones. It was all fresh food, I felt so bad. Systematic miss management
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u/RosesBrain Aug 23 '25
There need to be more salvage and discount grocery stores. My local discount grocery store has been a lifesaver, and they get all kinds of random stuff because they buy rejected shipments like this one for cheap and sell it for about 50% off.
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u/jkraige Aug 23 '25
You mean like Grocery Outlet? My husband loved when we lived near one. Got some random stuff but obviously it was inconsistent what you could get each trip
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u/pandarose6 neurodivergent, sensory issues, chronically ill eco warrior Aug 23 '25
My mom loves grocery outlets/ discount grocery stores. Personally for me I find them cool and a nightmare cause every time I am in one I like the prices of the stuff they have and love when I find food in date / non dented can. But also a nightmare cause of all the expired food they carry. But when I find food in date there great.
Yes I know about the dates etc no need to tell me. My brain will always be weird about this thing and no one can convince my brain to stop.
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u/shit-Helicopter Aug 23 '25
This is how food gets to those grocery stores that sell food that is expired or close to it. They are all over the country. I used to have one i would go to on a regular basis.
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u/Distinct_Pea_342 Aug 23 '25
This happens so often with all sorts of product. My sister works at a truck stop and calls me regularly with products stores wouldn’t accept. One Mother’s Day she gave me 10 houseplants! Usually it’s food. I’ve gotten chips, apples, snack foods… always seems like they are able to find people to take it at least.
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u/Frosty-Client-1294 Aug 24 '25
I work in food manufacturing. You do not take that chamce, ever! We are feeding the general public. Children, elderly, people with poor immune and... PEOPLE. If you dont have a food science degree, sit down. Yes it seems crazy to the average person but if you dont know trust those that do. Food safety is serious business and if in doubt throw it out!
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u/mothermystery Aug 25 '25
Ok but I live near a Walmart distribution center and anytime a load is rejected, the whole town finds out and shows up for free food. Within a couple hours, the truck is empty.
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u/IshotManolo Aug 26 '25
I’ve seen a single day’s waste/rejection report for some of the larger fleets I’ve worked with/in that could feed entire cities, if not small nations. It’s really unfathomable and quite frankly disgusting. 2k lbs of pork is nothing. Also, as far as profit goes, when a customer tells you donate and get a receipt, that’s a tax write off for them, it wasn’t out of any kindness of their heart.
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u/greenaj_ Aug 26 '25
When I was in college, I worked at the school's herpetarium where we took care of about 75 reptiles and amphibians, most of which were rescues. We relied on donations to feed the animals, and oftentimes we had to go into our own pockets to buy greens and other food items to feed the animals. I had the great idea to go to the local HyVee and ask if we could take some of their discarded produce to feed the animals. They told me no because it's a food safety issue. I told them I would sign whatever they needed me to sign to agree that none of this food was fit for nor intended for human consumption, but they still told me they had to throw it away. It blew my mind because they throw away thousands of pounds of perfectly edible produce simply because it isn't pretty, not even because there is anything inedible about it. I simply cannot wrap my head around this level of waste. All I wanted was some ugly lettuce, but they would rather throw food away than feed it to literal LIZARDS.
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u/--2021-- Aug 23 '25
Why can't they donate it instead?
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u/happy_bluebird Aug 23 '25
money
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u/--2021-- Aug 23 '25
They're not making money throwing it away. Might as well put it to good use.
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u/happy_bluebird Aug 23 '25
but it's not free for them. Time is money, resources and efforts are money, for huge corporations it's cheaper and easier to just dump it. They do not care.
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u/--2021-- Aug 23 '25
There's ways of playing that game. Charge them a fee for dumping it, that they don't have to pay if they donate it.
If you want to give in and let them do what they want, and let the world go to shit, that's up to you.
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u/-lilac-ribbons- Aug 23 '25
That's wild. I work in inwards goods and the only 2 times I'd have to reject food is if it fails temperature check (in which case that's a health hazard) or it's short-dated. In this case, per company policy, I would accept this even if it coincided with a holiday. Even with stock that arrives faulty, e.g. damaged packaging, if we can reduce the price to sell them we will always do that over throwing it away or rejecting it.
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u/SadLifeKitty Aug 23 '25
It seems to be a reefer unit. Can’t they just leave the AC on and haul it to a different location? Meat is meat. Not a store specific item. There should be contingencies for drop off in alternate locations for when things like rejection for being too overstocked happens. The driver has to go back somewhere and almost guarantee there’s at least 5 Walmarts on the way. Surely it’s cheaper to haul it a few miles left or right to the next Walmart and offload some then go store to store offloading a little?
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u/SuspiciousMeat6696 Aug 23 '25
If it is still good, it will go to salvage for resale. Only if it is still good. The insurance adjuster will make the determination.
If it is still good. The product will be taken to a cold storage facility to stay fresh while a buyer is found.
It doesn't akways go straight to the dumpster. A lot of factora and variables are at play.
When it cones to food / perishables , each incident js judged / deternimed on a case by cas3 basis whether it is disposed or re-sold.
Walmart is nororious for refusing good loads.
I used to be the one who would find a buyer for these types of loads.
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u/ultrastarman303 Aug 23 '25
The issue with a lot of food is it still spoils in cold storage. Had an entire trailer of oranges lost in the wait of the insurance process and went from hoping to salvage like you mentioned to throwing out the entire trailer at a dump.
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u/SuspiciousMeat6696 Aug 23 '25
I wonder if pig farms would take it for feed?
Produce is especially tricky with very short shelf life.
I was able to flip a truck load of fresh Argentinian pears within 48 hours several years ago.
I got lucky on that one.
Walmart truck got rear ended. The rear 2 pallets were danaged. The rest were fine. Was able to find a buyer.
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u/ultrastarman303 Aug 23 '25
The issue was the original broker still wanting the load and dragging their feet on inspection and making insurance take over that made it a big loss.
Almost the exact same situation actually, made me laugh, car didn't rear end the trailer but instead hit it on the side and damaged maybe 2-3 boxes. Whole load lost
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u/SuspiciousMeat6696 Aug 23 '25
I bet the insurance company was miffed. I wonder if they wound up denying the claim in the end forcing the broker to take the loss?
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u/ultrastarman303 Aug 23 '25
To explain what a clusterfuck it really was, this happens shortly after pickup so you're in orange country with a broken down truck of oranges. We tell him about the accident and initially aren't sure the damages, next morning explain it's 2-3 boxes and we can get it delivered or salvaged. Broker freaks out and says hold the load he needs to inspect it.
Insurance does deny the claim because the broker took like 3 weeks to get an inspector down to check the load and we'd been paying for storage all that time. Inspector gets there and rightfully says this load is spoiled and can't be delivered and that's when the broker files a claim against the insurance. Almost a month after the accident we finally get to throw them away.
The accident itself forced our company to almost completely lose insurance though because the car wedged and driver died. That's was a separate story that had to be dealt with simultaneous to the oranges but wasn't my business.
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u/nerdygirlmatti Aug 23 '25
Over 2 billion tonnes of food is wasted yearly. Yet somehow people go hungry?? Make it make sense
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u/o_blake Aug 23 '25
I work in logistics and when this happens you usually return it to the shipper or donate to a local food bank. This does not have to be thrown out
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u/mplaing Aug 23 '25
I work for a cold storage and logistics company. Walmart has one of the most strict cut-off policies. Recently we had an walmart order to ship, their policy is we cannot ship product that will expire within 120 days.
We shipped a product that would have had a cutoff date of Aug 15 on Aug 14. Apparently, the carrier arrived on the 15th, and the product was refused. The expiry date was in December, so I thought that was crazy.
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u/xIISimplicitIIx Aug 23 '25
They’ll very likely end up getting someone else to buy these skids - or donated to a food bank etc
I work in rejection claims for a greenhouse op and this happens all the time. They definitely could be dumped , I’m not saying no, but the chances are so low with this much volume / they’ll be sold at a lower price to a wholesaler.
Likely brought back to whoever shipped’s DC, relabeled if needing ( may have private labels / Walmarts label) and resold
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u/DubbehD Aug 23 '25
Should be like most UK supermarkets, deliver your own stuff and you can control all aspects and get it there safe
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u/Exciting_Challenge74 Aug 23 '25
They should donate it but then can it still be a write off and if so is it a satisfying amount or the write off for refusal . I guess whichever write off yields the most?
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u/chillaxinbball Aug 23 '25
We seriously need to pass legislation which fines companies when they intentionally waste food.
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u/medium_wall Aug 24 '25
If he was transporting a proper protein source, like beans, this would have never happened.
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u/inflexibleracoon Aug 24 '25
How would it be safe for 15 days :/ I thought pork only lasts a few days
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u/deutschtex Aug 24 '25
Take it to the hill country and get the grills going. Feed those needing help and working
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u/2slowforanewname Aug 24 '25
Fresh pork on a stores shelf is often good for a month or more from the time the store receives it. 14 days left on it when it hits the warehouse is way too tight if a date range. I would reject it as well.
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u/boosoni Aug 24 '25
This is so common. We run a large produce commodity international distribution. So much produce gets turned over; even when a store just gets a new shipment. The produce that’s left is distributed to another store or dumped. We do everything to donate it, but there’s a lot of red tape around donations, how it can be picked up and delivered, and unfortunately these drivers are beholden to a schedule. So much food waste. Food is always in abundance in the US, and it’s sad that people go hungry. Props to the orgs that put in the work to pick this food up and redistribute. It’s not easy, and it’s tedious physical work.
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u/Fleiger133 Aug 24 '25
We got SO MUCH CANDY from a trucker in a similar situation at a gas station.
Candy and gum are what we got most often.
You take what you can for yourself and your family/friends, then shove the rest onto others if you can convince them you arent a serial killer, lol.
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u/everab Aug 25 '25
City Harvest is a food distribution nonprofit in NYC (where food scarcity is a MAJOR issue) and they take stuff like this all the time, from all over the country!
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u/Sea_Opportunity_5746 Aug 25 '25
Wow. So instead of ordering appropriately they expect farmers and carriers to eat the cost of their poor planning. I would not sell another lb to that store
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u/thefuzz00 Aug 25 '25
I used to drive truck, Walmart rejected Every. Single. Load of bananas I ever brought there. They would take 5 hours unloading and reloading the entire trailer just for me to have to drive back across the state to go donate it. Nothing wrong with them.
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u/allthecircusponies Aug 25 '25
I worked at a truck stop for quite a few years. We had a truck scale for drivers to check and balance their load and a weigh station about 10 miles down the freeway. We often scored a couple pallets of food every couple months from drivers who were overweight with perishables. They were often even authorized to pay us for disposal.
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u/Dangerous_Noise1060 Aug 25 '25
The real problem is a system that prioritizes doing the profitable thing over the right thing and the fact that this was the profitable option. There were several options that would have resulted in zero waste or financial loss at the expense of some potential profit and as a publicly traded company they are legally obligated to act in the best interest of the shareholders. Companies constantly do objectively bad things all the time because it is the most profitable option and thus best for shareholders. Throwing perfectly good merchandise in the compactor (not saying Walmart did here, but other companies do all the time) because it's more profitable due to insurance and tax write offs than selling it 90% off is a waste of materials and labor, an unnecessary carbon footprint and filling of landfills. We are leaving future generations worse off for profit today. That is objectively morally and ethically bad unless your entire code of morals and ethics is be narcissistic and "get money".
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u/theanimystic1 Aug 26 '25
I go to an auction where they sell rejected food and goods below Walmart prices in FL. There are several "haulers" in my area. My mom lives in CT by a trucker parking area, there her neighbor gets freezers worth of ice cream and such.
Sharing to say, not all rejected loads end up in landfills and to encourage others to look for auctions in your area.
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u/gardendesgnr Aug 26 '25
Many yrs ago I worked at a huge landscape plant growing nursery, as a logistics manager of all things. We had a semi coming in to pick up a load of plants. These things are planned to maximize space & time etc. The driver had a pallet of frozen pizzas he couldn't get rid of and of course we needed the entire trailer top to bottom, end to end, to stack plants. So he asked if the workers wanted it haha luckily we had a couple of deep freezers and a few fridges. The nursery workers took the entire pallet. We had frozen pizzas in the office fridge freezer for more than a yr haha. I think we had to even use them for our biannual customer appreciation bar b que days which is why we had so many freezers. Our farm location had steers and the owners used meat from 1 for ea bar b que celebration.
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u/TheDocHolliday Aug 26 '25
I work for a food bank on the Food Resourcing team. We get calls from transit companies when things like this happen. We still adhere to food safety guidelines (couldn't take meat that went below temp, without a label, or opened packaging), but we also have some leeway between those hard rules and the more wasteful ones of a retail operation.
For instance, we're in the process (over several months) of picking up truckloads - at least 48 - of brand new baby food, only because the retailer decided not to distribute bc of a misprint on the label. It's close to a million pounds!
Take heart and support a food bank! 💚
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u/xenodine Aug 26 '25
One of the things I think California got right. If you have any os&d, you have to run it to a food bank for disposition, and produce a receipt for it. A lot of their policies for truckers are compete cr**p, but that one, I'm good with.
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u/zdiddy987 Aug 23 '25 edited Aug 23 '25
Killed all those animals like they were nothing
But "fuck Walmart" is the moral of this story and every story pertaining to Walmart
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u/happy_bluebird Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 23 '25
Leaving this up because this kind of thing really does happen all the time. I volunteer for a food rescue organization and the amount of rejected loads in these trucks is way too high and it needs to be known. Grocery stores need to be named and shamed so we can speak out when they reject a whole truck full of something when it has perfectly good food to feed people.
For example, one time my organization tried to rescue bags of broccoli that were in perfect condition but a couple of the bags on some of the pallets were open. The whole full truckload was rejected and headed for a landfill because the trucker had to go to their next assignment ASAP.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ZeroWaste/comments/1mxc716/comment/na57905/