After we saw empty shelves in supermarkets across the UK due to panic buying, photos of bins overflowing with fresh food have been emerging on social media.

Following the outbreak of coronavirus and subsequent nationwide lockdown, people cleared the shops of most things, before it turned out there was actually no need to.

A councillor in Derby has called people out for being wasteful in a pretty scathing tweet.

to all the people in this great city of ours in Derby, if you have gone out & panic bought like a lot of you have & stacked up your houses with unnecessary items you don't normally buy or you have bought in more food than you need, then you need to take a good look @ yourself pic.twitter.com/fpYdGBu6M4

- Ajit Singh Atwal (@AtwalAjit) March 27, 2020

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Sharing photos of fresh food put out for the bins, Lib Dem councillor Ajit Singh Atwal posted: "To all the people in this great city of ours in Derby, if you have gone out & panic bought like a lot of you have & stacked up your houses with unnecessary items you don't normally buy or you have bought in more food than you need, then you need to take a good look at yourself."

In the waste you can see full loaves of bread, packets of cooked meat and fresh fruit, all piled next to and in recycling bins - a clear sign that panic buying fresh food is quite clearly a pointless pursuit.

People weren't happy with the photos.

One person replied: "What a waste of food, it's amazing me how many ignorant people we have in this country... And how they managed to place one foot in front of another... God help us all..."

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Another came up with a solution, saying: "They should be made [to] cook it and take it to a place where homeless know. They are going hungry and this food is better than none."

Credit: Twitter/Ajit Singh Atwal

Someone else commented: "Disgraceful. I hope these people look back and realise they have let themselves and their communities down."



The lack of stock left in the shops due to people hoarding massive amounts of food and other essentials caused many shops around the world to introduce new measures.

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Major supermarkets have brought in limits, with Aldi across the UK introducing a four unit limit per customer on any item, as well as many bringing in hours at the start of business for the elderly and NHS workers, who were often finding themselves with nothing left to buy.

One supermarket in Denmark came up with a crafty plan to stop people from hoarding items that others might need.

A supermarket in Denmark got tired of people hoarding hand sanitizer, so came up with their own way of stopping it.



1 bottle kr40 (€5.50)

2 bottles kr1000 (€134.00) each bottle.



Hoarding stopped!#COVID19 #coronavirus #Hoarding pic.twitter.com/qaJb7UZwLr

- :candle:️ :flag_dk::flag_de::flag_sg: (@_schuermann) March 15, 2020

This Twitter user shared the shop's little trick - to sell one bottle of hand sanitiser spray for 40 DKK (£4.92/$5.73) which seems reasonable. However, a second bottle would cost customers 1,000 DKK (£123/$143).

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