Dunkin Donuts proclaims that America runs on Dunkin. However, if a recent TikTok video is any indication, it seems that landfills run on Dunkin, too. An employee dumps dozens upon dozens of doughnuts in the garbage in the video.
When you have a craving for coffee and a fresh soft doughnut, there are few better places to go than Dunkin Donuts. They have locations all around the country. At the same time, the quality of food and drinks at the locations are comparable. So, you have a good idea of what you’re getting when you walk in or pull up to the window. But, many customers are unaware of just how much of their food goes to waste at the end of the day.
However, one TikTok user is exposing just how much Dunkin Donuts wastes when the day is over. In a video captioned “Closing at Dunkin,” Kathleen Dias (@kath.dias) goes through her closing routine at the store. What follows is a video of the employee dumping hundreds of doughnuts into a large waste container. At the time of writing this article, the video has 1.6 million views.
Dunkin Donuts Is Only One Contributor to America’s Food Waste Problem
If the insane display of food waste bothers you, you’re not alone. However, keep in mind that this is just a small percentage of the amount of food they throw out. There are over 8,500 Dunkin Donuts locations in America. Worldwide, there are more than 11,000 locations, according to their website. This video only shows one night at one location. Imagine how much food DD wastes in a day across its thousands of locations. It’s sickening. There are millions of hungry people across the country who would love to have day-old doughnuts. Instead, they’re headed to the landfill.
Dunkin Donuts is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Just about every major restaurant and supermarket wastes food on a huge scale. In fact, your local grocery store probably wastes more than DD on a regular basis.
According to the USDA, food waste is a huge problem in America. The Dunkin Donuts video is just a symptom of a larger problem. In fact, the USDA estimates that 133 billion pounds of food were wasted in 2010 alone. That comes up to about $161 billion worth of food. At the same time, it’s roughly 30-40 of the total food supply. That’s right. About a third of the food in America goes to waste.
