What can we do?

After a brief stint in a commercial kitchen again I am left pondering a way to reduce waste. The top end fine dining establishments have good margins so only worry about wasting high cost product. The overworked chefs finish a 6 day 70 to 80 hour work week and have to do the weekly clean down. Involving cleaning/throwing out the fridges, mainly prepped produce that is currently good. Just hours ago it would have been a component in a $120 meal but now it is headed for landfill. Similar practices going on at the other thousand restaurants in Manhattan combine to produce tonnes of wasted waste. This is a resource still fit for human consumption, pig food, compost, biogas or for something for anyone able to figure out the logistics. A legitimate fear, lost sales, causes much of the retail waste. Who will buy a sandwich at 930pm if they know it is free at 1000pm. The reality at many Manhattan supermarkets as long as you are willing to pull your sandwich out of a trash bag on the curb.