Food waste: How much food do supermarkets throw away? (CBC Marketplace)

this is marketplace dumpster-diving okay this will discuss some people but what your supermarket doesn't want you to see as a whole lot of food Canadians trash 31 billion dollars worth of food a year from big-box stores to your shopping cart I'm just gonna throw it out for you in advance no no why is seemingly good food being from have garbage this is your marketplace we're gearing up tackling a global problem you know I don't usually have to wear this to go grocery shopping there's a first time for everything okay let's give it a go taking you behind one of the largest grocery chains in the country hey we got a lot of bins there let's see what's inside in Canada alone we throw out 31 billion dollars worth of food each year we're investigating how much of that ends up trash behind big stores like Walmart Parmesan cheese this is four months to go four months until it's best before date best before day salad still three days from now at this store just outside Toronto we find twelve bins full of food and most of it still looks good to eat hey David today's festive package cauliflower not even past its best before dates this is just one visit so is this unusual or the norm these dark sweet cherries they're frozen mm-hmm check out the best before date March 23rd 2018 so it's almost two more years those could still be on the shelves so I pulled this celery of a package give you an idea how bad it is listen my bets and you get when it's makes that we visit this Walmart over a dozen times day after day we find everything from produce to baked goods dairy products even frozen foods not even in the compost just straight in the garbage why is so much seemingly good food going to waste maybe Walmart has a good explanation time to reach out a NASA while we wait for their response I'm heading to Edmonton Alberta you're saying the truck comes everyday to MTV every day to meet up with a former Walmart manager he's going public because he doesn't agree with Walmart's food waste policies how much food are you throwing out in a given shift back I would say at a daily average shopping cart goes to waste a shopping cart worth of food yeah ali zayn member wallah worked at this location for almost a year what were you thinking when you're throwing away a grocery cart full of food on a shift um I I really felt bad because I know a lot of people in in this city or in this country even in in this whole world they don't even get to eat proper food what happens to an apple or a vegetable that is a bit bruised I have to prove it and that was a policy that you understood when you worked at this Walmart that's correct ali zayn is not alone we talked to walmart insiders from across the country who say throwing out shopping carts of food is common practice to see if that's true we're checking out another walmart store all right here's some bins yeah here we go packages this is fresh corn on the cob there's nothing wrong with it lots of good food here too okay this will discuss some people but still good in Canada we waste billions of dollars worth of food every year what goes through your mind when you hear that billions of dollars that is a lot of a lot of money and a lot of food I'm from Pakistan there there a lot of people they don't have enough food to eat so I guess the we're lucky that we are having so much food here and you're wasting it after several emails and phone calls to Walmart they still won't talk on camera but after we tell them what we found in their trash bins they do take some action check out what they have done at the stores where we told them about all that food waste well those bins they're now behind lock and key did get a message from Walmart and they said the food we found was unsafe for consumption and add that they're working to reduce how much is thrown out they tell us these bins are typically locked to prevent access to product that's unsafe but then why weren't they locked up when we were here before so what's happening at other retailers well we just don't know because they've got these sealed compactors and we can't see inside we're starting to get a sense of the problem here in Canada but it's even bigger in the US with 70 billion pounds of food wasted each year so I'm traveling to Orlando Florida to meet up with a guy who's doing something about it meet activist Rob Greenfield okay I got my GoPro camera here so we can get a look inside that dumpster if we have to climb in he's passionate about not wasting and has become an expert dumpster diver today we're tagging along to find out how much good food we can find behind various grocery stores oh that looks like a whole entire box full of food there there's a natural white cheddar cheese I think we're just maybe hitting the tip of the iceberg here it looks like there might be quite a bit Robb's visited about 2,000 grocery stores across the u.s. collecting food that's still good to eat this is a whole bag of salads still cool flowers I don't know if we need the flowers that my anniversary is coming up mm-hmm you know that might not work out we just started and already collected enough to make a meal all right put on the van you are diving into dumpsters it sounds a little extreme yes what I do is actually quite extreme so we got quite a bit of food in here nearly 1.3 billion tons of food is trashed worldwide each year these are bags a lot of times there'll be one bad potato and a five or 10 pound bags that throw away the whole thing it's being wasted from the farms to the distribution centers to the grocery stores restaurants catering programs to the individuals at home it's being wasted everywhere and so the entire system of food and the amount of food being wasted is a complete fiasco now on a very hot day time for a taste test this is basically still good yeah let me get oh yeah this one's still fine yep all right well it is right now about 80,000 degrees so that feels pretty good we decide to check out Walmart to see if they're wasting food here in the US - all right it's a whole lot of food yeah blizzard ever there's eggs and apples and cantaloupe and bagels and everything's loose but we can't go any further the bins they're locked this season dumpster diver has seen it all so when we show on what we found at some Walmart stores in Canada what do you think of what we found it's a crazy amount of perfectly good food and it's amazing because I watched that and I'm I'm blown away because that could have been in a shopping cart or in someone's pantry it's absolutely wrong I don't think in any advanced society there should be people that are hungry while there's food that was still good that's going to waste one box after six hours of dumpster diving in Orlando our van is full of food and Rob wants to show it off to prove a point whoo okay so should we start with fruit let's uh yeah let's make the melon the center and with the help of Rob's friends we're putting together a large food waste display what's next candy that stuff looks good okay we've ladies go away now what now this food is hurt of taking anybody who walks by and whose interests and wants to get talking can take it home with them Rob says grocery stores should donate good food to those who need it food banks or shelters but we're told that would cost more money it's cheaper just to throw it away it sounds like it's one extra step it's a bit more difficult for grocery store to do that rather than to throw in the girl it is it's one extra step it takes a little bit more effort but I believe in the advanced society like the United States or Canada that if there's people in need that we should take that extra step and help look alright you got it nice catch with hundreds of millions of people going hungry each year it's easy to see how much of a difference that extra step would make you have so many hungry people and it's just it's ridiculous to see all this food that's wasted yeah after weeks of sending emails and making phone calls to Walmart we still don't really have the answers that we need so it's really only one thing left for us to do with video footage in hands we're going to the store you can't afford to miss this get more Marketplace sign up for our weekly newsletter at cbc.ca slash marketplace taking on food waste this is your marketplace after months of research and more than a dozen separate dives into Walmart's waste we found it all yogurt poultry baked goods frozen dinners even juice afford eight is almost two months away yeah and it's filled perfectly edible food all of it trashed we've asked Walmart several times to talk to us on camera but they say no so now we're going into the store where we found all that good food to get some answers surely the store manager can explain hello how are you I'm David with CBC Marketplace we're here because several times in fact more than a dozen times we've actually gone to the bins behind this store and we found good food in those bins why is seemingly good food being thrown out in the garbage currently I'm going to call my office you just give me a few minutes okay but you're the store manager here so we do have a reduced program that we use and our food goes through a waste program so I'll just me a couple minutes and I'll be right back Sebastian Bella says he needs to call head office so we wait and wait finally he comes back we just don't understand why there is food that seems like it's still good for sale right that's before it's best before date that looks like it's okay I mean some of it is is water how does water ever go bad right I do have their number at that office and they can help with that information and what about those bins that are now locked up behind his store when we first started looking at wasn't locked up and then after we let Walmart had office know we what we'd found it was suddenly locked up so you don't have any interview so I could just ask you actually if I'm not the right person you got any answers here today I'm asking your time okay okay no answers inside the store so outside we're putting together our own food waste display showing shoppers what we found behind their Walmart Tekin Walmart shoppers would you like to see how much food being thrown out in this one store I think it's terrible and why aren't they giving it to shelters or to people that are big people who don't agree having a wrong work for food yeah it would not shelter yeah whatever I think it's terrible well it's unnecessary absolutely we tried to get Walmart now to answer the question about why and they didn't answer us when you don't get answers what do you make of that well if I was asking a question I wasn't being answered I would think that they don't care that's not really I feel almost bad having come out of there hi Alex this is David common with CBC marketplace calling so after months and months of trying to get an on-camera interview on third of all food CBC News investigation it's only after our story hits the news that Walmart agrees so I come to Vancouver to meet Alex Robertson Senior Director of Corporate Affairs we found quite a bit of food waste over many days behind many Walmart's is this something that Walmart wants to change absolutely absolutely yeah we want zero good food going into landfill we won deservedly food going going to waste we want to donate as much as we can we want to sell as much as we can and also take steps to make sure that happens we are we've over the last 12 months we've really been wrapping up our efforts to address food waste what I don't understand is how you can have so many bins out the back of multiple stores day after day after day that are full of seemingly good food you can't have too much returned for sure there's mistakes that are being made and that's one of the things that we need to do tighten up the execution of our in-store processes so the food that is going into the bins we need to be more certain that that is food that needs to be thrown out you get the food waste is a problem that you're a part of that problem exactly I think that we feel that we're on the right track we have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be can we come back and check in with you absolutely I wish you would yeah in Canada we leave it up to supermarkets like Walmart to police their own food waste but other countries have taken action France recently banned food waste requiring supermarkets to give it to local charities and shelters Italy offers a tax break to grocers who do that some US states have also taken action what's Canada gonna do well we're gonna ask the Federal Minister of Agriculture morning minister good loin name it with CBC Market Place good to meet you good Salo currently there's no policy to address food waste in Canada but Lawrence McAuley says that could change other countries have already adopted food policies particularly around food waste why is Canada not done something like that yet we think it's important to do and achieve my mandate later and we are going to do it I want to give you the opportunity to just acknowledge that food waste is an issue if you so believe it oh I believe that food waste will be looked at in the policy framework where is it a problem in Canada I mean is it something that needs to be addressed well what we want to do is to address the total food policy issue in this country so Canada is not cracking down on supermarket waste yet when we showed Canadians what we found behind stores they said that should be illegal obviously what your what your earmarking is is obviously a problem if there's food out there that's waste eat do you think it's time for the Government of Canada to take a stand on this we will come up with a national food policy hopefully that will be very helpful to the consumer and the producer and everybody else in between Macauley says it'll be another year before his food policy comes in until then Canada is still way behind the biggest wasters of all you this is what you're throwing out there okay boom my heart is racing is I feel like it's so expensive and wasteful but now we're thinking this is your marketplace time to face what's in your trash we've gone through the garbages in grocery stores now time to take a bin into a store to challenge customers to see what it is that they're buying and what they throw out any advice for the stuffing market every year Canadians toss out more than fourteen billion dollars worth of food at home food waste happens in lots of places yep does it happen in your home yeah I waste a bit of food for sure turns out we all throw out nearly one in five bags of the groceries we bond why chances are we're buying way more than we need what have you got in your bag I don't want you to panic about what I'm about to do get the old compost bin here I'm just gonna throw it out for you in advance oh no no that's all right so I'm showing shoppers what typically ends up in green bins and what they can do to reduce their waste your broccoli any sense of how much of that usually gets thrown out about 25 per second I picked that that was a really nice profit reach out there that was a really nice broccoli we see the thing with the tomatoes he's got the wrong guy here cuz I really like Tomatoes well I'm like obsessing them so I'm Annie them like fan you like him enough that you put them on your body yeah those are those are going quick okay well let me try to horrify you okay if you were like most Canadians didn't have a tattoo of tomatoes yeah this is this is what you're throwing out fair fair okay boom oh is this like a like with it where we look uncomfortable looking comfortable but we're just doing what statistics tell us Canadians do in fact about half the food we throw out at home fruits and vegetables okay where are those strawberries yeah they look great don't they yeah they look really good they look good my heart is racing is I feel like it's so have been wasteful okay so regular milk almond milk we throw out 15% yeah if you're the average Canadian family you're gonna throw that out Wow that's crazy so if I pull your bananas here yeah six of them yep the average Canadian yes weighs one and a quarter of them oh really when you walk into a grocery store and you have a guy after the checkout throwing your food out what's going through your mind I just threw away money some uncomfortable moments there people I had no idea we were gonna be tossing their food like that but in a way we're just doing what people will end up doing themselves in their own homes so we're going on a neighborhood spot check in Brampton Ontario meet Owen Irene and Gord Moss like many families when it comes to food waste they think they're doing a good job do you think you're any more or any less than anyone else I think we're pretty well average yeah let's take a peek okay how much of what we see in here gets thrown out on a percentage basis I would say probably 20 to 25 percent for the Moss family that means $1,000 of groceries tossed each year and that's on par with the average family in this country what do you guys think about how much food is wasted by people just like you well I think it's a disgrace we should value food a lot better than we do we've talked to the moss family about how much they throw it but it makes you wonder how much food waste we all produce after all almost half of it takes place in our own homes so we're taking them on a field trip to a nearby waste facility so we can see just how much is being tossed on a daily basis all right so here it is Wow Wow it's incredible pretty stinky they're shocked and this is only food waste from a couple of neighborhoods over a few hours believe it or not this is just from a couple of trucks right and those trucks come constantly all day behind us is a room full of this Wow it's a football-field-sized why there's 2,000 tons of mostly food waste in there credible hmm for safety reasons we're not allowed in there we take a lot for granted we really do it's just available so you just buy it don't want it you threw it out but now we're thinking mm-hmm yeah we sure yeah and that's the idea think before you buy think before you waste whether you're a family or a big retailer okay now you've seen it mm-hmm now you've smelled it let's get out of here great thanks for having us next week on marketplace house-hunting undercover real estate agents caught on camera she kind of had a full-price divorce I would have loved to know what the number was breaking the rules we'd be looking for max mopeds secret deals broken dreams excite it was a perfect house crossed

Channel: CBC News

Views: 1,370,941

Rating: 4.8062797 out of 5

Keywords: CBC News, CBCNews, CBC broadcasting media, public broadcasting, news, Canadian News, Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (TV network), CBC News Network, food waste, food, garbage, dumpster diving, environment, marketplace, cbc marketplace, marketplace cbc, walmart, grocery stores, supermarkets, money

Id: QLqkV8cP4xs

Length: 22min 27sec (1347 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 28 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/YOUREABOT]

Canada has only 36 million people and throws out 30 billion of food, so $833 per personper year. America has a population of 325 million and throws out 70 billion, or $215 per personper year. So per personCanada is much worse