wasteful things brands NEED to stop doing

[@Hellswarmglow]

Once was an intern who tore books, i was repeatedly told i was not allowed to donate anything. What a dark time for the environment.

[@vvitch-mist20]

You should expose that business. Wtf.

[@ckee8437]

Barnes and noble does this, magazines and books and then they dump their Cafe milk on top to prevent dumpster diving

[@vvitch-mist20]

@@ckee8437 People would still get those books but they would also need to know how to clean them.

[@roaldajordaan146]

That is so sad.

[@exomake_mehorololo]

Unsold books could be given to libraries, schools and charities

[@shawnaripari]

YES! I was in a comment thread talking about this and people were saying book stores don't discount their unsold books in store, sell them to employees for cheap or free, or do something similar like that in a public facing way because then people wouldn't buy the books and just wait. That argument doesn't hold up when we're talking about schools and libraries especially. So many teachers talk about how they're buying books for their students themselves! This is a problem and a solution that are just perfect for each other

[@lorenabpv]

fwiw and i know this doesn't change much if you don't work in publishing, but: most publishers work with consignment deals, especially smaller ones. by donating the books, the bookstore is actively costing the publisher money. given how underpaid and undervalued we are as an industry, it doesn't seem fair. and most times, people already work with charities anyway, even though the margins are ridiculously low. books are costly, yes, but they are very cheap considering how many people work to make them happen. that's also why amazon is cheap, unfortunately, bookstores earn about 40% of a book sale, amazon basically sells at loss for them in short: do borrow from libraries, but also buy books at full price directly from publishers or local bookstores

[@shawnaripari]

@@lorenabpv thank you so much for adding some much needed nuance to this topic

[@exomake_mehorololo]

​@@lorenabpvwho is the "people" who already work w charities? Is your perspective more applicable to smaller and midsize publishers or also the big guys?

[@lorenabpv]

​@@exomake_mehorololoat least in my experience, book marketers do a lot of charitable partnerships on the DL. i think it's due to the whole discourse about books being expensive (they aren't, given the state of the world), no one is announcing they do giveaways, but it's very common for book fairs, clubs and other social bookish stuff to have a charitable component. even authors with popular launches tbh. also like, publishers do giveaways and stuff like that, you don't usually get free stuff from other kinds of creative work? and it's not a very financially sustainable industry, so like 10 free books is a oot for most prints. i'm not super tuned into american pub culture (not american, work for a prh subsidiary abroad), but i've seen it both on big and small publishers. at the end of the day, paper is the least expensive part of making books happen (that's also why ebooks aren't like half the cost), so while it's a questionable practice, recycling the paper it's usually less cost and energy intensive than sending them to bookstores across the country and having them sit there to sell at a loss. usually, big publishers have their own storage space, so this is cheaper. small presses tend to print lower runs, but then they depend more on the bookstores and consignment deals. that's why preorders matter a lot in the book industry! they help with planning and organizing. it's a very slow and low tech industry (again, lack of money), everything is planned months if not years, in advance to fit within the pub cycles. sorry for the long response, but i've worked about a decade in this industry and it's both terrifying and fascinating how its expectations are very different from other cultural industries

[@lisalis5877]

Not that long ago I found out that the concept of your individual "carbon footprint" came from the *oil giant* BP! Well, actually a marketing firm came up with the concept for them to practically put the blame for climate change on individuals instead of corporations like them.

[@shawnaripari]

I learned about this recently too! That the more we think about our individual impact the more we're thinking about small individual changes instead of larger ones. Or, you know, thinking about how shitty some of these companies are as you mentioned

[@exomake_mehorololo]

Sounds about right! One of the biggest evils is people letting corporations tell them that's it's on little old you to save the world while they continue to destroy it in en masse

[@HereticHousewife]

I worked in my university's bookstore in the 90s. I was in charge of the trade paperback section. Part of my job involved stripping covers off of unsold books, sending them back to the distributor for credit, and disposing of the coverless books. We had to put them in a tied shut trash bag in a locked dumpster. You better believe I took every discarded book that I wanted to read and thought one of my friends or family members might want to read.

[@_ashley_nicole_]

Having to ship returns to a place to sanitize or do whatever they have to do to make it sellable again is part of running a business. Also, companies are making lower quality shit because they are cheap. They want to line their pockets with more money. Let’s not forget planned obsolescence- if an item is of good quality and lasts, consumers have no incentive to buy more.

[@shawnaripari]

Yes to all of this

[@yoonphoria]

I used to work at a certain Market that is big on healthy Foods. The customer seating area had separate trash cans for trash, recycling, and compost. I was trained to empty all of those into the same dumpster

[@shawnaripari]

nooooooo

[@ZZ-qy5mv]

I wish we could order clothes online but go to the store to try them. It'll be nice to set an appointment and then just try on everything you "ordered." Then decide what you want to buy.

[@Iquey]

That's called bopus. Buy online pick up in store. A lot of people try on what they pick up when they get to the store and use the fitting rooms. BUT! You just gotta be disciplined enough to ignore the entire rest of the store😂😂

[@dinosaur3126]

​@@Iquey I mean I have to do it a lot of the time at hot topic cause they don't put out a lot of the plus size stock and each brand is slightly different sizing

[@sungexpression9093]

“They’re not gonna do the right thing out of the kindness of their own heart.” 😂so true

[@belindagritter1572]

That’s because it is a business, not a charity. And that business puts a lot of food on a lot of people’s tables every week - including their employees, their suppliers and their families, and whatever waste removal company they use as well as the gas and electric company employees. They can do better but let’s not make the mistake of making monsters of businesses who, by their existence, give jobs and life to a community. How many people would not be working if not for those companies? My husband worked for UPS for 32 years and provided a nice life for our family which in turn allowed us to have some funds to donate to others. That’s how the real world works. They are not the enemy and dividing people never leads to a solution. We need some creative minds to find more ecological solutions. Wouldn’t it be cheaper for a manufacturer to use one piece of plastic instead of wrapping everything individually? So why do they do it? Are there perhaps legal hoops they have to jump through that involve mass packaging? We do it know the other side. Same with food. Our food safety regulations are among the best in the world and they keep us pretty safe but that means there are a whole lot of things that they cannot do with food that maybe they would like to. More investigation needs to take place in order for proper solutions to result. We need to do better.

[@sungexpression9093]

@@belindagritter1572 not reading capitalism apologia

[@sungexpression9093]

@@belindagritter1572 stop believing that corporations are “forced” to do things for the bottom line “To put food on their table” They are giving themselves raises while raising prices and laying off working class and middle class ppl

[@belindagritter1572]

@@sungexpression9093 too bad. You might learn something. It’s your choice not to see both sides of an issue because that’s what it will take to find a solution. I did not like or dislike your comment because I am not emotionally affected by it. We all make our own choices and I respect your right to make yours.

[@sungexpression9093]

@@belindagritter1572 there is no both sides.

[@cadence6002]

I worked for Aerie/American Eagle. The amount of plastic generated was INSANE. each individual thong wrapped in plastic. It was disgusting. 8-15 boxes per day, 40-100 items of clothing each individually wrapped in each box. EVERY DAY!!! I asked one time if there was any way we could recycle the bags, I said I would use my own gas to drive them. There are no places to recycle plastic bags in my city. Turns out plastic bags are notoriously hard to recycle and take special equipment. It’s just so unnecessary and wasteful I had to quit that job because it was literally making me depressed.

[@coolchameleon21]

yep, every major clothing store is like this. i remember having to unwrap every individual item from a plastic bag, so wasteful

[@breakawayseoul]

Some chains require the plastic bagged separately from other trash because it's shipped back to distribution to be sent to recycling. Meijer does this.

[@AndAllsToDoAgain]

Call me a party pooper if you want, but I hate free “swag”. It is always cheap or ugly and I don’t want to be a walking advertisement. I always feel the need to use these things but hate them! People are so surprised when I reject free stuff.

[@JillofAllTrades-inMI]

Agreed! I was at a work conference in the early 2000s and these people were practically knocking people down to get the free pen or highlighter and they weren't even talking to the vendor in the booth about what they were advertising, it was like watching a bunch of middle aged people going trick-or-treating from booth to booth. It was so wild to witness that it "broke me" of the need/want for free stuff like that, like it made me step back and really look at it all. I actually cringe when I go to a work conference and they hand me a tote bag full of crap. I have my favorite pens and I never go to a conference without some sort of tote or backpack of my own. My one coworker was the worst offender, a master at shoving someone out of the way to get the last squeezy stress ball. The ball that she eventually would throw out along with the pile of other free crap that accumulated in her office untouched in a basket until she retired. The most recent conference I went to had the "swag bag" that also had a packet of conference info, but if you didn't want the bag they had an app you could download that had all the same conference info available there. I was like YES more of this please!

[@biankabodon4122]

i have so many notebooks and pens from banks and other companies and every single one of them is so low quality. they literally choose the absolute cheapest possible product and get their names printed on it.

[@karenhaire5451]

Unfortunately, fear of litigation is part of why stores are not more charitable now. If someone became ill after eating food that was discarded, they would be liable.

[@chelseag3365]

This was the reason that was told to me when I worked at a restaurant, too. It was in their policy to not allow us to give leftover food to the public.

[@joreneelanguages]

This is largely not true, and we need to dispel this notion 😅 not sure in other countries but in the US there are federal protections, barring obvious abuse.

[@chelseag3365]

@@joreneelanguages They need to stop including it in our official job training 😄

[@joreneelanguages]

@@chelseag3365 oh no that would require them to give the real reason and not an excuse!! 😆

[@CampingforCool41]

This isn’t actually true, it’s just the excuse corporations give. The real reason is that giving away free stuff lowers the value of those things. They can make more money by throwing away everything than giving it away. It all comes down to the profit motive.

[@sungexpression9093]

I love the question and answer😂 It’s like grown up Dora lol It’s so apparent with destroying the products that the function of selling books isn’t about sharing knowledge or entertaining people but making a profit.

[@shawnaripari]

😂 I was genuinely curious to know what people think but then proceeded to give the answer without waiting 10 second 😂😂

[@joreneelanguages]

I worked in retail at a company that actually tried to get a fair amount of money out of product, like we had an as-is section for damaged merchandise, seasonal stuff would usually go all the way to 80%+ off or to $2 bags before being thrown away, etc., but still oh my godddd we still destroyed so much merchandise. If the seasons turned over too quickly to sell everything left over would be destroyed, anything more than like 1 season old destroyed, etc etc. It was appalling. It is just impossible to not be wasteful when things are produced at the rate we’re producing them.

[@rissajaneen]

I just finished a book called Secondhand by Adam Minter. Very interesting book with a lot of info about thrift stores and the global trade in textiles and textile recycling. Towards the end of his book he goes into a good discussion about creating products (mostly electronics) that are made to be repaired and have good longevity. I just thought I would share the book because a lot of his ideas seem in line with some of your recent videos about the need to change ideas around consumerism.

[@shawnaripari]

this is exactly the kind of book I'm interested in. I made a note of it, thanks so much!

[@AprilGloria]

I used to work at a Starbucks inside Target in the early 2010s and they’d force us to throw all the pastries after being out for I think 2 days. They made sure we knew they had cameras watching us 🙃 We were allowed to sample things out so a lot of times I’d just start cutting it all up and offering it to all the cashiers as samples but let them take like 4 pieces lol

[@YulianaWrites]

I try to use ‘too good to go’ app as often as I can. Not just because it helps to buy food cheaper, but also because it helps to use cool food that would be thrown away if not picked up. Come on, it’s just 1/3 of an original price!

[@SimplyKatieWalks]

One thing that always bothered me at the restaurant i worked at.. the amount of oil that was put down a drain. Im talking gross oil when they change out the fryers. Where does all the oil go? What environment are we destroying by pouring fryer oil down the drain? Anyways, you are absolutely on fire this month 🎉

[@shawnaripari]

I am horrified!!! Thanks for sharing this

[@loes6839]

In the Netherlands there are seperate big tubs outside of restaurants that get emptied out (just like normal containers but for oil). We also have those things at supermarkets so people can discard of their own frying oil safely. Horrified to hear that restaurants put it down the drain. I think that's even considered a crime here.

[@shawnaripari]

@loes6839 this sounds entirely reasonable! If we can establish recycling and green bin collections we can do the same for oil! I really like the inclusion of the disposal at grocery stores too

[@cs8712]

It probably goes into a grease trap where it is removed by a disposal company. I imagine they sell it for industrial uses

[@alliekay5599]

So idk about your restaurant but ours has a special drain they dump it down that leads to outside, and a big truck comes once in awhile and takes it. I think they refine it and resell it for other stuff. I’m in the US. So hopefully not as horrifying as it looks

[@saraashkir5793]

Im halfway through so Im not sure if you touched on this. But one of the reasons this waste is being caused is due to how these companies set up convenience for shoppers in the first place! I finished the “returns” section, and as you mentioned this problem has increased due to online shopping. But one of the problems is companies accepting used product (such as makeup) in the return, forcing them to destroy it. If they didnt accept it, a lot more people will think twice when purchasing knowing they may not be able to return. Also a lot less people will buy something for one event to use then to return. Along with that, theyve made returns TOO convenient with the extended return windows and full refunds. I bought a pair of pants from a smaller niche company and it was way too small, so when I returned it they took $10 from the refund to pay for processing fees and required i keep it in original packaging. That process would make it so much tougher to return, that people would 1) buy less crap due to cost of return/clutter and 2) keep more of their items because of the hassle. In that way an individual is likely to be less wasteful than a corporation (they have more time to sell it or trade with a friend or give to a thrift store). It moves the responsibility to people. So while yes, processing returns is a problem, these companies care more about increasing convenience to make more money overall and ignoring the environmental impact

[@shawnaripari]

This is a really excellent point! Convenience has created a ton of extra waste and wasteful habits on both ends. I started talking about it in the original footage but cut it out to keep things more concise and because this could be it's own video. I'm glad someone brought it up

[@ladyariananorth]

I used to manage a Mrs. Fields Cookies back in the 1990's. My store donated our day old baked stuff to a local Meals on Wheels...until I discovered they weren't putting the treats with the meals, they were selling them!! I asked the rep about it, they told me the treats weren't nutritional so they wouldn't give them to the clients. I stopped donating when I found out. I started trading them to a local radio station in exchange for on air promos. Kept that going until we closed down.

[@amandak.4246]

that was a smart switch! i would not have thought to do that trade

[@elisehodge2520]

what your describing with the Books only happens to mass markets formats, which are the palm size paper backs that are typically $5-$10. This is the last stage of publication before a book goes out of print, and only happens because the store can not sell them. Some stores will recycle them, and others will donate them to the VA or shelters. The cover is removed so that someone can't try to return them.

[@shawnaripari]

I'm happy to hear that some book sellers are indeed donating books! Also, you're right that all the books were paperbacks but they weren't all the mass market paperbacks. I spoke with someone after making this video and they also confirmed this. Perhaps there are different practices across countries?

[@Ryanneey]

I can’t tell you how many librarian friends I have. It’s odd. Anyway, one of them was telling me that when people drop off donations, they usually toss the whole thing. One reason was because with every book craze comes a wave of donations, and they don’t have room (or demand) for 1,000 copies of 50 Shades of Grey on the shelves.

[@lavendarcrash2941]

That's one of the reasons our library district has an annual book sale. The "Friends of" NPO runs it with volunteer staff. Money from sales pays for the summer reading program. Stock sold all comes either from rejected donations, donations earmarked for the sale, or weeded materials from the collection.

[@erensalias]

I work in literary wholesale + distribution for libraries, specifically in book processing and cataloging. Essentially this means I am the person who turns an ordinary book INTO a library book for any specific library. Another issue with donated books is that libraries dont produce or even attach the barcodes, spine labels, property labels, etc to their books; that’s my job! Essentially everything you need to catalog a book in the library system is done in an office before the library receives the books, and it’s all done by hand. Additionally, all the public libraries my job services use these things called RFID tags. These are anti-theft devices attached to the book that are electronically paired to the barcode and put into the library’s database. These tags have to be programmed on special software (one by one, by hand), which is again done outside of the library by people like me. So when people donate books to libraries…the library just doesn’t have the means to put those books into circulation. So that’s another reason libraries do book sales for donated books / have free book carts!! Additionally this amount of work takes TIME, lots of it too. There’s a reason I get paid to sit at a desk and hand measure every spine label that goes on a library book, to hand place every barcode, and whatever else the library uses to catalog their collection. Some libraries have over seven attachments per book + plastic covers + programmed tags. Even if a library does have the means to put donated books into their catalog, they wouldn’t have the time. That’s why folks like me do it for them! On a positive note-at least for the company I work for-when our books get damaged / can’t be sent to libraries we are allowed to take them for free. Sorry for overtaking your comment a tad! I just wanted to chime in with a bit of professional experience on how library cataloging works, and explain another reason why donated books are typically not put on shelves🫶

[@Ryanneey]

@@erensalias thanks for sharing that. I find all of it interesting! Any sort of peek behind the curtain is pretty neat.

[@karlachavez7228]

As a person who has worked in the high end fashion industry wholesale from the vendors overseas, to regulations for importing, to actual guidelines each retailer requires to accept the clothing….unfortunately the issue is more complicated that it appears. Especially apparel produced overseas they must be packaged a specific way to prevent any damages including mold from moisture. We should be in a place to create only sustainable packages but that will only increase cost leading to higher prices. That doesn’t make sense to the fast fashion industry especially

[@effullgent]

i think the worst place i worked for waste was publix, they purposely purchase mass amounts of food, especially produce so everything appears full to the customers just to throw out so much of it because it doesn't get bought. they know it won't get purchased, they just want it to look better and it costs less to toss out the extras than it is to idk have smaller bins?? the waste alone at that store could have been used at a school that likely isn't getting proper food to serve anyway

[@ketameanii]

this is frustrating

[@Aleatoire9]

The returning stuff is absolutely wild!!! I can’t imagine doing that, I resist online shopping so hard because of this

[@oliviahnsly]

Don’t forget about all the clothes that came out slightly wrong and so we had to destroy the entire batch so no one could wear them and put them on the dumpster. Or when corporate found out we were vacuum sealing and donating kitchen leftovers to the local shelters and they made us stop because they considered it a liability in case someone got sick and they got sued!

[@marthfador]

I had worked for a grocery store that, when I first joined, would take all the expired foods or foods past the 'sell by' date and open them, dump out the contents, and trash them. They told me that it's from people dumpster-diving and trying to return things for credit. Previously they had worked with a food bank, but one day the woman they had been working with came back with a haul of this food they donated and asked for a cash refund instead, so they stopped donating. It would be a few months, but a manager contacted their own church and now they donate just about anything they can- whether it's food or otherwise. Losing the cap to a bottle of soap makes it unsellable, but they can tape it over and hand it over to those that need it! I'm actually proud of that sort of change my little store had- but emphasis on Little. I had worked at a larger chain store beforehand and they'd rather cut their own hand off than let one item slip by to anyone for free, expired or not.

[@elisecccccccc]

The plastic around clothes one is actually so they don’t get damaged in shipping, it is actually more wasteful to not have them wrapped. Idk if there is maybe an alternative material but it’s something to consider when you purchase something that there is always an energy and waste cost associated with its delivery!

[@angelaa.9915]

I always wonder about this when I see all the grocery stores with huge boxes of pumpkins in October/November…

[@visibleghost1]

When I worked in fast food we had routines that ensured we always had ready products, even though every burger was made to order. So there was always a few vegan patties, a certain amount of meat patties of every size, enough fries etc. ready. That resulted in a lot of waste during low traffic hours (the amount was adjusted for how much we were supposed to sell but it still resulted in waste). They changed the policy to fry some things that we sold like 1-3 an hour of to order, so it did get better but to be able to serve every customer in under 180 seconds, while serving fresh and safe food always results in waste. I don't think the food waste was the most wasteful thing about it though. The company has gone "plastic free" which ONLY means that the customer does not get any plastic handed to them. Literally everything in the kitchen, from mugs to fries to sliced tomatoes came in plastic. And we made no effort to recycle anything aside from PET bottles and aluminium cans because you get money from it. The company greenwashes their garbage system too, customers think they are recycling their containers because they have to sort it but it all goes in the same garbage bin edit: omg I wrote this comment before watching the entire video, we ALSO only recycled cardboard and the same thing for "recycling". so so so deceptive

[@tripodologia]

This reminds me of when I used to work on and off for temp catering companies, and being at events where the manager would throw away perfectly salvageable, untouched food to the trash rather than giving it to us employees because "they didn't pay us to eat"... it's the whole mentality about "perceived loss" that's so gross (and actually inaccurate to what actual losses for a company are).

[@effullgent]

i thought paper was easy to recycle? even if it wasn't, why aren't these donated? sold extreme clearance? or idk maybe just not order as many books if you are destroying that much product you need to reanalyze your customers habits and not purchase things they don't want.. this is so sad when i worked at starbucks you're supposed to donate your food but two of the stores i helped at threw it all away instead. one of them had a man come in who ran a charity asking for it and the manager lied that they donated it to another one but nope, their employees would throw it out every night. it isn't all of them, most do donate but some just toss it all. same with grocery stores and other food places. it's so depressing, all because heaven forbid someone gets anything for free.

[@DisabledDoll]

There should be laws that force them to donate these items. I hate it here

[@sektaufeis6139]

As someone who worked in the publishing industry: Publishers don't want to take back books that don't sell. They would destroy them, too. It's expansive to keep them.

[@josie.dp_]

Thank you so much, Shawna. We need more contents like these.

[@_jo-jo_]

My guess is they destroy any books that don't get sold.

[@angeladesilva7913]

Why don’t grocery stores donate the food to food banks?

[@shawnaripari]

good question, I do not work at a grocery store and cannot say for certain what standard practice is. Some of my local grocery stores reduce imperfect/older fruits & veg and this does seem to be one of the ways that they attempt to keep food from becoming waste. I hope someone who works or has worked at a grocery store can weigh in

[@saraashkir5793]

Similar reasons as other destruction that she mentioned: 1) the food banks would have lots of food and would cause some people to go there instead of shopping at the store (less money for store) 2) it costs money to package and deliver the food and 3) food specifically may have more liability if not handled properly so they dont wanna open up possibility of lawsuits. There’s workarounds for all of this but companies simply dont care

[@Magicpoppy]

I was always told: due to the health risk (government regulation), if anyone gets sick from the food they can be hold responsible. Anyway, great video & sad reality.

[@exomake_mehorololo]

I did read about some initiatives here in the UK where food may get donated to food banks. I'm sure it's not easy and there will be hygiene restrictions. Definitely also heard about restaurants donating

[@RebeccaEgilson]

I live in Canada. Our stores locally are part of a system where food is donated to: food bank/community kitchen, to farmers for their animals and then lastly to the compost.

[@himbosuplex]

Ohhh I feel this so hard. I used to work at a department store, one that is notorious for it's arbitrary funbux system, and I worked truck. The WASTE that came with the shipments! TONS of trash bags of plastic we had to rip off individual clothing items. Several bags of garbage every truck. 50 or more collapsed boxes. All thrown into a trash compactor, and I am 100% sure they weren't recycling it. And I found out about the destroyed books because my sister is a grade school teacher and she once ranted about how a closing bookstore location local werent sending the lower ticket stock back to the publishers and they wouldn't donate even a TENTH of those children's books that were to be destroyed to her school instead - they destroyed them and disposed of them. It's so fucked up. It would have cost them so much less to donate those kids books, had someone come and pick them up and sign off with school credentials, and coulda written them off as a tax write-off. But no. Destroyed. The store in question was Borders (long since bankrupt) and it was a big expose locally because they were throwing out metric tonnes of garbage, not recycling it, and they were trying to make the city trash system deal w/ it instead of hiring a company to do waste disposal. The store was going bankrupt! What were they losing by just giving the shit away???

[@mzcyberbat]

20yrs ago I used to work as a cleaner (the ones you see pushing a trolley in the shopping centre). At night we had to put bags of bread in the bins. We used to take loaves home with us. There were over 10 bags of 🍞 . Recently our kids school now has bread to give away. I think the shops are trying to reduce waste .

[@roaldajordaan146]

I've seen this before in the warehouse of a grocery store, the thing with goods being packaged a.f. in plastic before they get put on the shelves. You see a jar of mayo on the shelf. In the warehouse, that was wrapped in a sixpack mayo with thick plastic, and then all the six-packs were bound together by layers and layers and layers of plastic wrap like the kind some people use for sandwiches. So much behind-the-scenes plasic.....

[@maetodecember]

I used to work for a company whose sister company was a bookstore. Twice a year, they would allow employees to get 3 free books from the pile to be discarded. They would also regularly donate these books to charity. Somehow, despite all this, thousands of books still get shredded all the time. I was so shookt to learn that that was the norm.

[@greenelephant6539]

My local bookstore makes grab bags for themed days, like Indie Bookstore Day or Shop Here Instead of Prime Day. They're $5-$10 and will have 2-3 hardcover and paperback books in them. I found out that when books come in even slightly damaged from shipment, the store can get a credit for those books. Those are what is getting put in the grab bags! It's phenomenal and they always go fast. I love that the books aren't getting shipped back to be destroyed; they're getting put in the hands of readers for an amazing price! And the damage is often so small, like a dented corner or tiny tear in the cover.

[@ladyowl8732]

At my old work the promotional shirts were always a bit big, and we all just took them home for pajama tops.

[@faeriesmak]

At GNC we tore the covers off of magazines and books and the covers were sent back for credit but the rest were put into the dumpster.

[@shawnaripari]

this makes me so sad

[@faeriesmak]

@@shawnaripari Returns also went to the dumpster after they were held until they were reported back to corporate. They they went to the dumpster even if they were brand new and still sealed. Luckily we had an amazing manager who allowed us to take anything that was pulled to be destroyed in field or returns. She was risking her job to allow that, though.

[@Theamandaa]

I ised to work in retail, specifically cosmetics and it disgusted me how much we had to throw away perfectly fine makeup just because it was a return. Or it was never sold. It never made sense to me why companies dont just produce less product. And also I rarely buy coffee but now that starbucks brought back customers beaing able to use their personal cup, makes me really happy. I can buy a cup of coffee and not add to the plastic waste. But buying one cup of coffee from starbucks is expensive so for the most part I make it at home.

[@av7831]

this is part of why I dumpster dive 🤷‍♀

[@faeriesmak]

I do from time to time as well and it is crazy the stuff that I find. My son came home last week with 2 cases of potato chips from a local place. I guess all of the high school kids dive there and the company does not destroy their shelf pulls. Most places tend to cut that sort of thing open.

[@sabrinazou1148]

The books thing just took a piece of my soul with me........

[@Aleatoire9]

I worked at a small bookstore and we only tore books up if they were mass market paperbacks. Everything else got sent back to the publisher where I assume they hung onto the stock or sold them off to liquidation stores. And we recycled what we ripped up, and yes took them home hehe

[@ckee8437]

Target throws away bicycles that are returned, if the tires touched the ground...WTF, they could at least just replace the tire vs toss the entire bike!

[@SUMLIGHTZ]

omg the book one HURT me

[@shawnaripari]

It's awesome you know what you like! I keep flip flopping on these shoes hard!! I've mentioned them in multiple videos saying I don't need them, ok I want them, ok i don't like them, and now I'm back to ok, I like and want them 😅 That aside, I'm happy to have you here!

[@polina_ts9264]

I kinda like usable company "swag". Socks, t-shirts, hoodies, notebooks, stickers, totes - gimme. I'll use it. But some companies do some things I can't wrap my head around. A plastic stand with a logo on it? Pens that don't write? Branded quill? 10 pop-sockets per one conference?

[@savannahwilson133]

They rip off the covers and put them in the dumpster.

[@mariana12280]

I work in two different warehouse jobs when they gave us stuff most people used everything most of them couldn't afford to throw away a t shirt and the other company I worked for gave all their dirty cookies to farms mostly to pigs yea there are companies that do waste a lot but not all not to mention that food company I worked for gave food away at the end of their shift if there was too much to throw away but not enough to load another truck

[@lazhuli5058]

I used to work at a grocery store for a short time but also a thrift store. The parent company the owner the grocery store had strict guidelines about products - no bruises no dents, basically no imperfections. So the store would donate all the food they weren’t allowed to put on the shelves. The only food they threw out was expired or stuff that was way too damaged. The thrift store I worked at was a small business but we’d get donations from department stores and other types of goods stores. It was great I wished more store did this. We’d get book donations from stores sometimes too.

[@shawnaripari]

I love that the businesses you worked with accepted or made donations! Thank you for sharing

[@adelines1620]

I know I’m late to the video here, but I have a lot of knowledge on the waste which is of Victoria’s Secret. One of many things they did (not sure if they still do) was when someone returned a bra that had the little pink tag that had fallen off or potentially removed, we were told to CUT the straps and throw it away in front of them! 99% of the bras that people returned where the tag was missing, it had simply fallen off. Those tags fell off during processing for crying out loud. I’ll never forget all of the 60.00+ bras that I had to CUT and throw away in front of the customer. The waste at VS was unreal. I worked there for 12 years… I have a lot of stories lol. But in all fairness, MOST retail companies are extremely wasteful and it’s only getting worse.

[@arstyashley]

Every coffee shop I’ve worked in has donated the food or put it on good to go app 🕺 that is something

[@orangutansoda]

That first point hits so close to home. When I worked at Journeys we would get so many shirts and accessories that were just individually packaged in plastic. And I totally get wanting to keep stuff clean but it was to the point it was just too much. the ammount of plastic hurt my soul. when i worked at build a bear it was even worse. i think even just using paper would be better. at least with paper it’s easier to recycle and can be reused easier. If they wrapped it in a paper towel like material i know that would be a great way to save on paper towrl

[@reneechandley]

At panera they wasted a large amount of food. I got to take what every I want home becuase of the pandemic. Wendys didn't waste alot of food. Max 20 chicken nuggets and max a total of 2 large fries 🍟 a night. But we could take it home of we wanted.

[@ketameanii]

it’s so annoying they throw out food because they’re scared people will get sued

[@cutecheerfreak1]

Not donating the books or clearancing them out hurt my heart 💔

[@kayleehog]

I think it’s important to remember that just because something gets from a store to someone’s home does not mean that thing will be used. This creator has videos on the declutterring process as well. If something doesn’t get thrown out by a company doesn’t mean it isn’t just getting thrown out by someone who took it home. The issue at its core is not just wasteful consumption or company waste practices. The problem is over production from companies in the first place. Stores want to keep shelves looking full but that means they have to produce more than what they sell which creates a motive to get people to buy more so they produce more and the cycle continues. Of course it’s important to encourage consumers to consume responsibly and to encourage companies to find ways to reduce reuse and recycle, but it’s also important to encourage the act of simply producing less to begin with.

[@DustfeatherOfFire]

One thing I hate, as someone who's worked various customer service jobs: staff uniforms. 99% of people would rather just wear their own clothes to work and not have extra stuff to wash. I understand having uniforms in certain workplaces - hospitals, for example, so you can quickly identify someone in an emergency situation - but in retail, cafes, etc. it would make much more sense to just have staff wear a brightly coloured lanyard or badge that uses a lot less material, doesn't require washing, and can be easily reused if a member of staff leaves.

[@flutesalute]

@DustfeatherOfFire yes!! I worked in food service at a bakery/cafe and the owner only gave us one uniform shirt each (if we wanted more we had to buy them from her). So that either meant doing laundry every day or coming to work in a dirty shirt and handling food :/

[@ketameanii]

BRO THEY COULD HAVE GIVEN THE BOOKS TO LIBRARIES 😭😭😭😭

[@monseboomt]

Go to trash everything go to the trash

[@nicnzb]

🏵️

[@calliemyersbuchanan6458]

You would lose your MINDS the amount of food waste that happens at public schools!!!! In my preK classroom we were required to throw away all food the kiddos did not eat because they didn't want it or were absent....even individually wrapped items like milks and applesauce cups. We would get in BIG TROUBLE for doing literally anything else with it. We couldn't send it home with them, we couldn't keep it for ourselves, we couldn't even put it in the classroom fridge to offer to the kids later for snack or whatever! It HAD to be tossed! It was so unbelievably painful to throw away perfectly good food that was produced just to end up in the garbage, ESPECIALLY meat! I'm not vegan but it also pains me to think of the poor animal who died just to be cut up, cooked, and thrown straight into the trash! it's just GAH!!!!!!!!!!!

[@AndAllsToDoAgain]

Call me a party pooper if you want, but I hate free “swag”. It is always cheap or ugly and I don’t want to be a walking advertisement. I always feel the need to use these things but hate them! People are so surprised when I reject free stuff.