Marks and Spencer Food Waste

Discount_diva_5

I went into my local M&S yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, about 3.10 pm; I think they shut at 4.00 on Sundays. There was an employee taking sandwiches off the shelves and stacking them in a basket. I asked (in a friendly, pleasant way!) if they were about to be reduced and she said that they don't reduce sandwiches, they "Just throw them away" !!!

I detest waste and I can't believe that a store that shouts about its green credentials as much as M&S gleefully dumps perfectly good food in the bin!

There's been much in the press recently about the amount of wasted food the average family throws away but no one has calculated the amount the average high street retailer wastes.

This isn't just food, this is obscenely wasted M&S food.....

Premier_2

Despite what the assistant said, (which I wouldn't take literally as not only does it raise environmental/ethical issues, but removal of waste costs any company a small fortune nowadays) I would say that large companies all have their own policies for dealing with food that is nearing or past its sell by/best before date.

e.g. reduce price
donate to charities, homeless organisations, etc

(both of which have their own issues & risks attached)

In the case of Marks and Spencer, perhaps this article would interest you.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/01/15/marksandspencer.html

It suggests M&S has a $450million plan to make the company environmentally responsible, shaped in part by former Friends of the Earth director Jonathon Porritt.

With regards to out of date food products it says:

Marks and Spencer will also test the possibility of using unsold out-of-date food as a source of renewable energy to power its more than 500 stores across the United Kingdom. It will feed the waste into composters, which will produce bio-gas that can be harnessed as energy for heating and electricity.

Perhaps the assistant who said they "Just throw them away" simply didn't want to go into any more details (other than their policy is not sell such items at a reduced price) or perhaps simply didn't really know what happens to it once she had fullfilled her duties to remove it from the shelves and place it where instructed.

[Deleted User]

I know people who've worked for M&S.. the food often gets taken to the back and sold to the staff for very cut prices.. it's not all thrown away

Sadly, when i worked for Boots in the 90s, they just chucked it all out

DeeDee74

not all marks and spencers threw food away...
alot of them donate food to homeless centre's..
most is nearing there use dy date but most of it get's used up.
i know what your saying though lots of shops would rather threw food away than give a decent discount so it saves being chucked...

Fuchsia_a

I read an article fairly recently about freeganism where they talked to a bunch of penniless students who were living quite happily off of regularly foraged salads and sushi from an M&S bin. Sounds a lot better than living off of nothing but rice, beans or pasta like some of my friends did at uni!

Melon78

I used to work for M&S, my mum still does. Food is generally sold with 75%off to staff so certainly not thrown away.

saintscouple

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Sarahsaver

I KNOW how much waste there is in big supermarkets.
it IS shocking to the outsider but to the stores it is all part of the process of buying and selling.
If you do not like food waste its best to avoid big retailers altogether, avoid processed food and grow some of your own if you can.
I used to work in Boots as a teenager and we could buy the food cheap on a saturday evening, and the remainder left unsold went to a homeless shelter.
Further back down the chain there is waste too of course. I worked in a crisp factory and saw what happens when there is a 'not quite up to scratch' lorryload of potatoes...

eyelinerprincess

Think that's bad? Dad works in a bakery and today they threw away in the region of 30,000 loaves because "they were 2mm too small".

Sarahsaver

A friend's husband worked in a sandwich factory. she used to give me bags of baguette ends (in fact about 6 to 8 inches of the baguette witht he 'end bit' on) because they did not use the whole baguette for sandwiches.

I do think its hypocritical of large companies to be pushing the whole 'reusable bag' thing whilst out the back they are filling crusher containers with goods, food and non- food items which they have removed from sale.

Raksha

I work for a company who arrange the recycling/disposal of a variety of different materials - we were once asked to arrange for the disposal of a whole trailer load of premium orange juice because it had 'been contaminated'. When we asked for clarification of what it was contaminated with (incase it was now hazardous waste) we were told 'with immigrants' - apparently the lorry had been used by illegal immigrants to come into the country, and now the whole load had to be disposed of........