[nimbius]

I apprenticed repairing coal cars and mining equipment and I can confirm the industry is pretty wasteful. we used to get cars that still had nearly a hundred pounds of coal in them. we used to quietly shovel it out in the winter and use it to run little shop stoves we called dumpers for heat.

[bombcar]

That's called gleaning and dates back to biblical times or before.

If you look at in based on percentages, you see whilst the amount may be large on a human scale, the time to 'get' that last bit isn't worthwhile.

[Gibbon1]

The bible literally says you have to let widows and orphans glean your fields.

[adrianN]

Do you perchance have a reference for that?

[marvin]

https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/24-19.htm

[markdown]

We're deep into late stage capitalism now, so nobody gets to glean... expired (but perfectly fine food) doesn't even get donated lest the corporation get sued when someone chokes on a pretzel.

[dugmartin]

There are many gleaning projects all over the US. I just just looked and here is a nice interactive map: https://nationalgleaningproject.org/gleaning-map/

It is not just “church folk” that participate - my kids public school does it as part of their community service projects.

[roenxi]

"late stage capitalism" is a phrase that doesn't really mean anything; but just to be clear - can't pin that on the capitalists! If the government makes it a liability to give away expired food then it won't happen, capitalism or otherwise.

[xyzzyz]

For 100 pounds of coal, the bulk buyers paid less than $5, typically $2-3. That’s hardly worth the hassle for them.

[joecool1029]

Nowadays we have waste oil burners to heat shops around here. We used to give all our used engine oil to a mechanic neighbor with a big shop.

[implements]

Regulated now in the UK - dirty engine oils are ‘hazardous” and need an expensive local council permit.