[ ♪♪♪ ] >> David: So we've got
quite a bit of food in here. We're back on the case. >> Packaged cauliflower. Not even past the
best before date. >> David: Investigating how
much food's getting trashed behind big stores like Walmart. One year later, have they
cleaned up their act? For Walmart,
whose responsibility is this to try to reduce food waste? >> Well it's our responsibility. >> David: After our story airs,
these kids take action. >> There's so many people
without food and they're throwing it out. >> I want it to be fixed. >> David: Talking trash... Only on your Marketplace. [ ♪♪♪ ] >> David: After months of
research and more than a dozen separate dives into Walmart's
waste, we've found it all. Yogurt.
Poultry. Baked goods.
Frozen dinners. Even juices. >> The best before date is
almost two months away. And it's sealed. >> David: Perfectly edible food. All of it...trashed. Last year we asked Walmart
spokesperson Alex Roberton why this was happening. What I don't understand
is how you could 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
that much returned. >> For sure, there's mistakes
that are being made and that's one of the things that we
need to do is tighten up the execution of our in store
processes so that food that is going into the bins,
we need to be more certain that that is food that
needs to be thrown out. >> David: You get that
food waste is a problem, and that you're a
part of that problem. >> Exactly, yeah. I think 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. >> David: Can we come
back and check in with you? >> Yeah, absolutely. I wish you would, yeah. >> David: So now, we're
taking him up on that offer. [ ♪♪♪ ] >> David: We're going
back to Walmart to ask... What's changed since last year? Hey, Alex. >> Hey, David,
nice to see you again. >> David: It's been a year since
our story first broadcast.. >> Food waste
by large retailers. >> David Common
goes dumpster diving. >> David: ..and we
heard a lot from you... And many of you took your
concerns right to Walmart. >> It's a lot of the same
questions that you are asking what-- what can we
do about food waste? >> David: What's changed
since the last time we talked? >> what you're seeing in this
store here is what the evolution is of a Walmart Supercentre and
so we've redesigned what the Supercentre looks like and
how it operates and how we process food. So what you're seeing here is
eventually what we're going to roll out to our stores
across the country. >> David: That includes a
new cold room to keep produce fresh longer. [ ♪♪♪ ] >> David:And through
this door... >> This is our prep room. >> David: Yeah. >> This is where we process food
that's been put on discount. >> David: More stores are
now doing markdowns like this... This is food that's approaching
its best before date? >> That's right. It's approaching-- it's getting
close to its peak freshness. But it's not expired so
it's still good quality food, but it might not get
sold unless we discount it. So we make it more available
for customers so that it doesn't wind up becoming waste. >> David: Right. Plus, there's a new procedure,
rolling out across the country, targeting a big source of waste. When just one piece of produce
in a bigger package goes bad. So this-- all of this would
have been apples that were in a bag, but maybe
one of them was bad? >> That's right. >> David: And now, you're going
to do what with them? >> So what we do with these
is we'll package them together and make a different
bag of assorted produce items. >> David: But sell it for less? >> And sell it for less. And we bring them out
to a cart like this here. >> David: Oh, so here's
one right here. >> So you'll get, uh, how many
apples do we have here, 7 apples? For a dollar. Which is a great
value for customers. >> David: Indeed it is
popular with customers, but most of Walmart's
stores aren't yet like this. When we spoke to Walmart,
the bins of tossed food were still locked up at
the stores we looked at. >> So those bins are there to
collect food that has gone past its expiration date or
where there's any safety concern whatsoever. The fact is there's always going
to be some food waste and we're trying to minimize that food
waste as much as possible. >> David: Where is
Walmart now focusing its food saving efforts? >> On reducing the waste. We want to sell as much as we
can and then whatever doesn't get sold we want to donate
as much of that as possible. So the ultimate goal, at the
end of the day, is to have as much food that we purchase
as possible to be consumed by somebody. >> David: And for Walmart,
whose responsibility is this to try to reduce food waste? >> Well, it's our
responsibility, the food that we buy and we try
to process it as best we can. So there's as little waste
as possible at the end of the chain. >> David: Like, you're trying to
get your own house in order? >> That's right. >> David: Walmart is feeling
the pressure and nationwide, it's starting to change. >> In the last year
since you guys visited us, we've reduced our overall
food waste, so the food that you see in the bins, by 20 percent. >> David: Though we can't verify
it, 20 percent is a big change. Thousands of kilograms
that's being saved. And in just the year since
we went diving through Walmart's dumpsters. Is the job done? >> No, we still have more to do. And we're continuing
working on our programs, working on our
training in stores. And that's also
delivering good results. >> David: 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. In Canada, though,
there is no federal policy to deal with food waste. Last year we asked Minister Of
Agriculture, Laurence Macaulay, why we're so far behind. 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 frame when we-- >> David: 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. >> David: The feds are now
working on a new food policy. 40,000 Canadians have given
their input and many say food waste should be a priority. The government, though,
hasn't done anything yet. We'll have to
wait till next year, when the new policy is expected. But these kids can't wait. >> There's people who don't
have enough food to eat. >> David: They saw a need
and are now fighting for change. >> Hello, Mr Chair
and councillors. >> David: Hear their story next,
only on your Marketplace. Got a story you think
we should investigate? Email us at... >> David: Talking trash,
on your Marketplace. Four months until
it's best before date. Marketplace found full bins
of seemingly good food being tossed at multiple stores. All right,
here's some bins. And our original story
was watched in classrooms across Canada. Dozens of teachers got in touch
with us and many students were motivated to act. Including in Millgrove, Ontario. >> Okay, so what'd
you think of that? >> Bad. >> Horrible. >> Disgusting. >> They went all across the
country and found stores that were doing this. >> It's really bad. >> There's so many people
without food and they're throwing it out. >> David: Now, the grade two to
five kids weren't just going to watch and forget. So here's where
things get amazing. >> They were so angry
and so passionate. And they knew right away that
they needed to do something to fix it. >> David: Jennifer Kershawe
is their teacher. >> The kids gave up two recesses
and lunches a week since January for five or six months
to work on this. >> David: Step one. After school, kids like Maya
go to stores themselves. Ask managers when and
why food is thrown out. [ ♪♪♪ ] >> Why would they do that? Like, there's people that
don't have enough food to eat. >> David: All right,
here's some bins. Then, they remember
something from our story. >> This is fresh
corn on the cob. There's nothing wrong with it. >> David: Okay, this will
disgust some people but... ..those are still good. >> I can't believe you did that! >> David: They're still good. >> The guy in the movie thingy,
he ate the blueberries. Nothing's wrong with him. >> Most of that stuff
is still good to eat. >> David: So they tried a
little in-class experiment. >> We brought food in and it
was past the best before date. And three weeks after,
then it started to mould. >> David: By now,
the kids are telling others. Creating their own presentation
and forging a plan to make their community a better place. [ ♪♪♪ ] >> David: They go door to door
gathering more than 1500 signatures on a
petition and then head to city hall...with a plan. >> They decided it would be
great if Hamilton would have a cold storage truck to pick up
the food from the grocery stores and deliver it
directly to the food banks. >> Hello Mr Chair
and councillors, we are here... >> David: But this
is no fluffy field trip. The kids came prepared. Here's Gabe... >> 18 percent of
Hamilton lives in poverty. That's about 96,000 of us
that need help getting food on the table. A grocery store throws out 30-45
large bins of perfectly edible food each week and all these
people need help getting food. Why can't that food go on their
tables and not in the landfill? >> David: Next up, Elana... >> Our project would empower all
citizens especially those trying to get back on their feet. One of the reasons that
grocery stores aren't donating right now, is because they're
worried about donating their short dated food because
they're worried that at the food banks it's not going to get
handled properly and someone could get sick. So how are we
going to fund this? Money from the waste management
budget because waste diversion does fall under that topic. [ Applause ] >> David: The mayor
seems almost stunned... >> Not only well presented,
but they have a business plan to boot. >> David: And he
agrees with them. >> This is certainly an
issue that's worthy of not only exploration,
but implementation, I would think. >> David: The kids could be
getting a city truck to collect food that stores are about to
throw away and bring it to those who can use it. Council is going to revisit the
class' request in December. They even get a response
from grocery chain Sobey's, that the class' idea
would be a perfect fit for their local store. Just done the
big presentation. How do you think it went? >> I think it went great. They said that they are going to
put food recovery and waste diversion in the
food strategy plan. >> David: You know Elana,
we have done a lot of work at Marketplace trying to help
people understand this issue. And you really understand it and
you've done even more work than we did, so it's
so great to see that. Congratulations.
>> Thank you. >> David: Do you think
something's going to change? >> I think a lot of things will. I want it to be fixed. It needs to be better, and if
that ever happens we'd be a role model for all of the world. >> David: Good stuff, fella. Good kid. [ ♪♪♪ ] >> David: Left to our
own devices. >> David: You are constantly
engaged to click on that Twitter queue, or your email,
the pressure to kind of go back and forth. But how much control
do we really have? >> It's just addictive, yeah. >> David: Playing all
those apps. >> Wake up Samsung. Samsung go to school. >> He seems to prefer being on
his tablet over everything else. >> David: Or maybe
they're playing us. >> They need your
eyeballs locked in that app. They're all in a
technological arms race to keep you there the longest. >> David: It's a real
world experiment. And as we discover, no one's
figured out the risk of all those rewards. [ ♪♪♪ ]
