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See the original image at divinecaroline.com

A Not-So Subtle Message About Waste (PICS)

divinecaroline.com — 1/3 of what you buy ends up in the garbage. An important message about how much goes to waste.

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  • chazizzle, on 05/09/2008, -8/+25Wow. It's sad how much we waste. I can't imagine bulk buying as helped ala Costco etc. This is good campaign. I hope they send it to other countries.
    • SuperWinner, on 05/09/2008, -14/+3Free market economy is based on waste, you cannot have it without a lot of waste.
      • CiXeL, on 05/09/2008, -0/+9vegetable waste we should be collecting and turning back into mulch. we dump so much fertilizer on fruits and veggies which is locked inside the food. break it down and its high end fertilizer again,
        • trappleton, on 05/09/2008, -0/+6Just keep a compost box in the yard :)
      • purplehaze420, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5Clearly you are thinking inside the box. Take a step out.
    • elliott9, on 05/09/2008, -1/+7I like costco!
    • tmbrwolf19, on 05/09/2008, -1/+13I would say costco reduces waste if anything. Buying in bulk reduces packaging waste for the most part. Food stuffs are always compostables and are an easy fix. That plastic wrap and other non-recyclables are what do us in and that should be the focus of household waste reduction.
    • kapsar, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4The main question is. If we don't buy it will it still go to waste? Basically, if we don't over buy we'd be punishing the grocery stores for expecting us to over buy, so the waste just goes back farther, then when they stop over buying to compensate for us over buying the farmer may get stuck with more crops, that he can't sell.
      Regardless the wasted will still get wasted somewhere.
      So you want to export it to needy countries? Well as in the aid to Myanmar has shown part of the reason people are starving in those areas is the governments running them.
      The sad truth is our society is built on excess and many people will in fact curtail their wasting, other people will scoff at it and waste even more. Plus, people forget the food they have, or they were hungry when they were shopping so they over bought. It's human nature to want more food than we can handle.
    • PabloMac, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Another third goes to my waist.
    • wastelander, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2We have to leave something in the dumpsters to feed the homeless!
    • themastersb, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1I assumed throwing away 1/3 of what I buy was donations to homeless people that rifle through trash.
    • apophenic, on 05/11/2008, -0/+1I think that most people who buy a lot at Costco either have large families or are running restaurants.
  • tambird, on 05/09/2008, -6/+16This should be posted in all US stores. You can just see people overloading their carts. The look on their faces as to whether they need it or not and then they just add it in.
    • Chassit, on 05/09/2008, -0/+12While I agree with the sentiment, it would be bad for grocery store's business to have pictures of rotten food decorating the place.
      • dougmc, on 05/09/2008, -4/+3Indeed. They'd rather keep the rotten food in the produce bins, where people might actually buy it!
    • Llanowar, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1I notice it with my mother very well. She just sees some cheap stuff and thinks it a bargain to buy. And then forgets about it. Or it's too much to eat within the period it stays well.
      I keep telling her she needs to change her way. But it's hard to make people realize this.
  • anniemcgrathy, on 05/09/2008, -3/+40I wonder how much food gets wasted in homes vs in restaurants. Either way, that is upsetting. Nice post, I didn't know about this artist.
    • madeingermany, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4At least the responsible restaurants have arrangements with organizations that can use leftover foods.

      I'd like to add that food does not go "straight to the garbage" - at least in my kitchen it has to sit around unit it catches mold, before I throw anything out ;)
    • rayraym0fucka, on 05/09/2008, -1/+7A friend of mine owns a pizzeria and at the end of the night they give all the left over pizzas to the bar next door for the drunks to eat. He doesn't believe in throwing food in the trash. Now what the drunks do with it is another story all together.
    • XSVfan, on 05/09/2008, -0/+5When I worked in a local cafe we threw away a lot of eaten food. It appalled me how much good food got thrown away. When it came to fresh food, none of it was wasted.
    • ausfahrt, on 05/09/2008, -1/+6It's brutal in restaurants in my experience. In busy kitchens time is so important that if a box of lettuce is low and too hard to fish bits out they would just toss it. It was the same with everything even cheese and im sure if you added the end bits up all night you would have a full box.
    • Virgule, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2I used to work in a restaurant. First weeks were upsetting me as I could see enough food going down the trash bin every hour to feed a family many days. :(
  • blast_flame, on 05/09/2008, -10/+12So? America has a surplus of food not a shortage. Now I'm sure some would use the people in africa argument but the problem is we can't get the food to where it's needed due to transportation and corrupt government troubles. What we need to do is introduce better GM crops to the region (and before you say anything, not all GM crop seeds have to be re-bought every year).
    • t1m0j5, on 05/09/2008, -0/+8The issue is not production, it's distribution
      • blast_flame, on 05/10/2008, -0/+1Hence my talking about the transportation troubles.
    • Brainmodder, on 05/09/2008, -2/+8Or we could build a portal gun to transmit our leftovers to Africa. Of course, this might require the energy of a couple thousand suns.

      Dugg for finally finding someone who doesn't thing GM plants are evil.
    • jimfeet, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3Did you read the subhead at the bottom of the picture?

      "... By reducing waste you help reduce the generation of waste, and consequently, help preserving the planet."

      OK, maybe not the best sentence structure but the message is accurate: quit wasting.

      We produce more than we need, more than we can use. Extra production wastes energy and valuable resources. For what benefit?
    • blast_flame, on 05/10/2008, -1/+1Consumer ease is a benefit. Granted it isn't a very big benefit but it is a benefit. The real problem is too much land and too many people are devoted to farming than needed. End the subsidies and the market self correction forces will get to work, devoting more of the economy to useful ends. Cruel in the short term but required in the long term.
  • digghandyman, on 05/09/2008, -3/+32The worst waste comes straight from the crops. If a crop doesn't meet a size standard they let it rot in the field. There was a huge stink about this in California some years back over tomatoes I believe. They weren't large enough for the stores do to weather. Then the canners couldn't get to them in time so they just died in the fields. Unfortunately this is common. Besides what makes it to the store at all is a massive tragedy.
    • SuperWinner, on 05/09/2008, -0/+10*due to weather*
    • oldhick, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2Damn, that really does suck. Maybe that's common on the big rich folks plantation farms, but around here we sell everything we grow. Of course prices vary and some things won't sell, but we take left overs to farmers markets around the area.
    • MetaDFF, on 05/09/2008, -0/+7Although I agree that having the crops waste on the field is bad, it's not as bad as having it packaged, shipped, then carted away to your house by car before being disposed of in the garbage can because you simply overbought it. At least rotting the in fields won't produce as much energy waste in the process. It is such a crime to waste something when somebody else could have eaten it.
    • merreborn, on 05/09/2008, -0/+16If it's not going to be eaten, the most efficient thing to do is let it rot where it lies. Requires zero energy, and most of the nutrients go straight back into the soil for the next crop.
  • wynja, on 05/09/2008, -11/+4Waste often.... watch the poor of the world starve..... laugh all the way to the super market...... check..... check.....checkidy
    • SuperWinner, on 05/09/2008, -1/+4There needs to be a sales channel for the food chain to work, its actually cheaper for the farmers to let it rot in the field than it is for them to give it away. Why? Because even to give the food away you have to transport it, and without an expectation of profit at the other end, no one will transport the food for free to the poor people who need it.
      • gurudrew, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1That's why a lot of farmers will allow the public to come pick the field clean of leftovers after the harvest.
  • wild, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Does that pumpkin have a mouth and evil teeth?
  • pk7677, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3Its kinda sad when I watch people wasting rice in my cooking class.
  • jstohler, on 05/09/2008, -2/+18Start a compost pile now.
    • lolwtfhaha, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3Don't compost meat, or poop (same difference).
    • gurudrew, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1sadly most people wouldn't know what to do with it afterward.
    • kingvik, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1You're not my mom, I do whateva I want.
  • oldhick, on 05/09/2008, -2/+8Pretty good reminder for us to be more diligent. While I know we can never be perfect I'm sure each of us can find some places where we can reduce our waste.
    On a side note, I have never heard of star fruit before. Gonna have to look into it. What do they taste like? Help me out here!
    • MidnightRealism, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Crisp and sort of like a pineapple, flavor-wise. They're interesting.
    • gurudrew, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1They are good. Way over priced though.
  • Rotzooi, on 05/09/2008, -3/+33While still a waste, I can deal with dumping left over rice and veggies. Animals that were killed and then just thrown away bother me a lot more.

    I'm a carnivore, that's not the point; killing and eating is fine with me. But wasting an animal's life just strikes me as very wrong.
    • madeingermany, on 05/09/2008, -4/+10or killing an animal for
      - its fur
      - just the legs (ribbit)
      - "sports"
      ...
      • jessehadden, on 05/09/2008, -1/+7You're absolutely, one-hundred-percent right. Terminating another conscious, subjective frame-of-reference for no other reason than fun, fashion, or a good luck charm is simply disgusting. The only reason you're being dugg-down is because these vulgar actions are still firmly entrenched in tradition.
      • Uranium118, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I'm curious why would they just take the fur and throw away the rest? They could sell it and make money. I don't know anything about the fur industry but if I was in charge, I wouldn't like that lack of profit.
    • VenDrake, on 05/09/2008, -8/+1"How much money would it take to kill a puppy with your bare hands."

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zXMgPES69s&eurl=ht ...
    • merreborn, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3Especially since it takes a lot of resources to produce meat.

      "Their analysis showed that producing a kilogram of beef leads to the emission of greenhouse gases with a warming potential equivalent to 36.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide. It also releases fertilising compounds equivalent to 340 grams of sulphur dioxide and 59 grams of phosphate, and consumes 169 megajoules of energy"

      http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id= ...

      That's a lot to throw away.
  • whiterice0, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2Man I'm hungry after seeing that.
    • ZeRux, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2then you have a fetish for rotten food
  • bendeboy, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4I work in the produce department of a grocery store. My boss would tell me half of that ***** would still sell. Rainbow foods BTW. They suck at pretty much everything.
    • meruru, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4I remember that well from when I worked in a supermarket. Just take out the ones with fuzz and put a 50% off sticker on it
  • cledford, on 05/09/2008, -1/+3ummmm foooood
  • jeremyduffy, on 05/09/2008, -0/+16That is so damned true. Usually fruits and veggies for me. It comes down to understanding that if you buy a head of lettuce, you better be eating salad EVERY DAY that week. But then again, sometimes it's cheaper to buy the bigger one and throw half of it away than to buy the one that's just the size you need.
    • calon9, on 05/09/2008, -0/+7After trial and error during my bachelor years, I got good at minimizing my fruit/veggie waste. I knew which to chop/wash before storing, which to store with paper towels to absorb moisture and which to put in those ethylene absorbing bags to prolong them. But most important of course was learning how much (or little) to buy at the store.
  • AshamedAmerican, on 05/09/2008, -8/+2Did anyone else initially think the thumbnail was a picture of a split open skull?
    • twiztidsinz, on 05/09/2008, -2/+1Nope... not all of us are looking to sensationalize some horrible act to fuel our political opinions.
      • AshamedAmerican, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2Your senseless reply confused me at first, but then I looked at your profile and saw you have a history of ignorant comments, so I see nothing abnormal here now.
      • twiztidsinz, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Well, I do owe you an apology (not being sarcastic).
        I saw the flag and recalled seeing your name more than a few times and mistook you for another Digg user who's also got a US flag who's always ranting/trolling about various stupid things.
        My mistake
    • ZeRux, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3you see only what you want to see
  • xwfilm, on 05/09/2008, -4/+6I heard somewhere that the average American ***** out more calories than the average African ingests.
  • twiztidsinz, on 05/09/2008, -3/+23But 100% of everything we DONT buy goes to waste.
    Help the environment, buy more :-D
    • lolwtfhaha, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1OMG your right. What about gasoline that we don't buy? It just gets poured into the ocean!! Ahhhh!!
      • twiztidsinz, on 05/09/2008, -0/+11/3rd of gas purchased doesnt get put into the garbage.
  • Xproject01, on 05/09/2008, -2/+15OM NOM NOM NOM
  • iunno666, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3I usually buy less then I need, theres almost no food in my house right now.
    • AlpineR, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2If you bought less then you need, then you'd die of starvation. Otherwise, you didn't NEED it. Or do you mean that you buy less than you need and steal the rest?
  • jordanday, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2I might be showing my cultural ignorance here, but if this is a Brazilian campaign, why are the posters in English? I mean, I'm sure there's a high percentage of English-speakers in Brazil, but I thought the national language there was Portuguese?
    • twiztidsinz, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1BRs have about 8 different languages that they use and some vary between regions even to the point where two people speaking the same language cant understand each other.
  • mooseontheloose, on 05/09/2008, -2/+26Too bad food products don't decompose and become soil or anything
  • 0nova, on 05/09/2008, -3/+2Good for Brazil. This is not going to happen in US. Most stores in US will likely say "Not enough, Buy more" rather then tell people to buy less. Capitalism is needed but not greedy capitalism.
  • drkmccrthy, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5Buried for showing almost entirely biodegradable products. (Aside from the pudding cups)
    • MTessa, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3I think the point is everything takes time, energy and money to produce whether biodegradable or not. So if we buy more than we use, the producers of food will make more and cost more waste. I definitely grab an extra this or that at the store and then don't use it some of the time. So I could consume the same amount and buy less. I think that's what the poster is trying to achieve. Just my view of it.
      • MTessa, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Yeah before everyone jumps on me *cause* not cost. I was eating ;)
  • neoform, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2033% ends up in the trash.
    5% ends up on my shirt
    62% ends up in the toilet a day later
  • johnmatias, on 05/09/2008, -2/+3So... what your saying is... we should eat more to waste less. Finally a good excuse for obesity!
  • Ganpachi, on 05/09/2008, -1/+5Just learn some basic kitchen inventory maintenance skills.
    1) Plan your meals out for the week paying attention to meals that make use of what you already have.
    2) Buy the ingredients you need for each dish
    3) Learn to cook them, enjoy them, take pride in them. Save the leftovers for lunch the next day and save cash on eating out at work
    I rarely throw out much more than the seeds, peels, baggies and cans from the veggies I buy, and usually I compost/recycle those.
    • Bluejaye, on 05/09/2008, -0/+3I agree. That picture was meaningless to me, I waste virtually nothing that I buy at the grocery store. I guess I was raised differently, throwing food away was near criminal growing up.
  • dyreschlock, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4Jesus.. First we're fat, and now we're not eating enough!?
    • MTessa, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2Nope. Buying too much and throwing it away. Buy less, eat less and then the US buy something else I suppose. We aren't the best savers.
  • captainLAGER, on 05/09/2008, -1/+9Brizillian?? Are they serious?!
    • ObeseSnake, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2Yeah that's just stupid.
    • robotderek42, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1It took that long for someone to point that out. Thank you, sir or madam. Well done.
    • pgouy, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Apparently, spell check FTL!!!
  • Dchandaman, on 05/09/2008, -3/+2now if we were communist we wouldn't have this problem now would we.
  • moomeep, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1... and then people are whining about the ever increasing food prices. buy less, save money FFS!
    • gurudrew, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1Until the farmer sees that he's not selling enough to cover his costs so he raises prices.
      • moomeep, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1but that's not the consumer's fault...
        • gurudrew, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1we told the farmer "if it was cheaper we would buy more" so he lowered the price. then we buy less so he raises the price.
  • EuropaCar, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I bet a lot of what ends up in the garbage are the containers..
  • SubaruPowah, on 05/09/2008, -2/+2Actually I use just about everything I buy. I am no fan of waste, I even RECYCLE!

    But yay for generalizations.
  • JonTheGoose, on 05/09/2008, -0/+9so if we bought less than instead of the food going bad in my house it would go bad in the grocery store and be thrown away anyways....the only way there wouldn't be waste is if we go all the way back to the farmer and tell him to grow EXACTLY 5 tomatoes because I'm making spaghetti sauce on Tuesday.
  • kdean06, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1If people stopped buying and disposing of all that food, the mold and bacteria colonies would die. You guys are so evil! Feed the mold!
  • blackgt93, on 05/09/2008, -0/+10This just in, 2/3 of the food you buy turns into poop!
    • jaderobbins, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4AND ITS JUST FLUSHED DOWN THE TOILET! PEOPLE SHOULD BE ASHAMED!
  • Brainmodder, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2Please throw stuff away. Once I get my self-replicating automaton working, that waste will be converted into my obedient robot army! MWAHAHAHAHA!
  • robertawerner, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1So they're blaming us for the nature of produce? That there are parts of apples, starfruit, lettuce, etc that are inedible? Are you kidding me? You want me to eat the banana peel? Are you f***ing kidding me? This is THE most decomposable waste we generate. Hell, get your priorities straight. Wasting your god damned time.
  • digjam, on 05/09/2008, -1/+1This just in....
    2/3 OF ALL ARTICLES ON DIVINE CAROLINE ENDS UP ON FRONT PAGE OF DIGG!
  • rootsm3, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1** Live below your means **
  • Hangly, on 05/09/2008, -1/+31/3 of what we eat comes out as poop. Don't waste poop.
    • jaderobbins, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2lol! People are so damn wasteful. FLUSHING IT DOWN THE TOILET!!!!!
  • bobartig, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1This ad would make sense if 1/3 of each item was spoiled, instead of the entire pile of fruit. Clearly, if you have a spoiled pile of strawberries, you're going to throw away 100% of it, not 33%.
    Last weekend, I picked strawberries from a local organic farm. That somehow buys me karma points for locally sourced, pesicide-free, sustainable agriculture. Then, I go and blow those points by eating out too much.
  • mrmigu, on 05/09/2008, -1/+0Someones gotta feed the dumpster divers....
  • jgsketch, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I love how the flyer is made to llok like a grocery sale flyer. Made poeple look at it. Great marketing.
  • xonkonog, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1Its gonna rot away whether people buy it or not, atleast its food for smaller organisms. id would be more worried about the excessive waste of plastic packaging.
  • johnn11238, on 05/09/2008, -0/+2I don't know who's fridge they've been going through, but it ain't mine. I've got 2 boys...
  • fredmv, on 05/09/2008, -1/+2For *****'s sake, stop digging Divine Caroline.
  • RoboDigger, on 05/09/2008, -0/+0so i guess the eco bag and sealable vacuum bags that i see on tv are scams. i tried to recycle my food to the homeless but they kept dying and getting sick.

    i can see why, these are mostly fruits and veggies. i bet burgers, fried chicken, pizza, french fries, and hot pockets are always consumed to the last crumb.
  • roberri, on 05/09/2008, -0/+1I read that poster as "nobody likes healthy stuff".

    "You don't make friends with salad! You don't make friends with salad!"
  • GREEDOnvrFIRED, on 05/09/2008, -0/+4I guess somebody is looking at this poster and saying "so true." And it appears the creator of the poster is saying theres a whole bunch of these somebodies. Who are these people? Find out and let me know, cause when the food runs out I am going to eat them.
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