It's absurd... I used to work at a Gas Station and at the end of shift all the the semi-fresh food (sandwiches etc...) which amounted to AT LEAST $50, some times ~$150 was thrown out EVERY DAY! and the employee would be punished if they tried to give it away to a homeless person or anything like that.
I can't imagine how much gets thrown out in restaurants, hotels etc...
We work in restaurants when we're not traveling and it's absolutely ridiculous how much goes to waste.. it hurts my heart to think about it.
In Canada I think there's actually laws against supermarkets donating their expired food.. which blows my mind!!! I remember one hippie town we lived in, people would dumpster dive outside the market because the food was mostly still good. But then they statted cracking down on people doing it.