Given the conditions some of these workers endure, you can hardly blame them for not taking more pride in their work.
Nor, I suppose, can you blame people who place so little value in it that they take it to the landfill.
It doesn't, however, change the fact that someone may have had a use for the item cast away casually.
Last year, I rifled through a collection of books at home.
It occurred to me that someone might be interested in reading them. I placed the books in a storage container, fashioned a "free" sign and placed them outside the gate.
People started rifling through the container. By the end of the day all the books and, to my partner's dismay, the container had gone.
It showed me that there is usually someone who will find a use for your excess belongings.
In days gone by, Tauranga had annual inorganic rubbish collections where you could leave large items on the kerbside for collection. Quite often they would disappear before the collection time had come.
In the US, there is a push for supermarkets and restaurants to cut food waste and feed those in need.
As much as 40 per cent of food produced in the US is never eaten, according to the Food Waste Reduction Alliance. Meanwhile, 50 million Americans suffer from a shortage of food.
A similar push is occurring in the Bay where a branch of the Good Neighbourhood Food Rescue has been launched.
As we reported earlier this week, John and Jackie Paine and Lavina Good have teamed up to establish a collection for unused food before it becomes waste and donate it to charities.
Mr and Mrs Paine were inspired after visiting the Kaibosh Food Rescue Programme in Wellington at the end of last year, the same time as Mrs Good contacted the organisation, which has redirected 205,000kg of food away from the landfill to those in in need.
Mrs Good owns Brookfield New World with her husband Brendon and is well aware of how much food goes to waste.
Good Neighbourhood Food Rescue volunteers will collect and distribute the leftover food every day, which also helps businesses save on dumping costs, she says.
Tauranga Women's Refuge and Merivale Whanau Aroha Early Childhood Centre are the only two organisations benefiting so far but the group hopes to expand as more food outlets come on board.
I can't help being shocked that so much food is going to waste, both here and abroad, when there are people in need.
While this may point to wider issues in our society, we can take some comfort from seeing how groups such as Good Neighbourhood Food Rescue and the Kaibosh Food Rescue Programme are doing something about it.
