Scrumping for Apples in the Office Fridge

All the offices I have worked in have a fridge that has required a regular stock take to clear out all the forgotten food.  It's so hard watching food going to waste, so to avoid these sorry looking apples going in the bin, I took them home to stew into an apple crumble.  I should state that all these apples were in a plastic bag and some dated back more than 3 months. Why do apples have sell by dates on them?  They are not perfect but they will taste just fine all stewed down.

I know the supermarkets keep saying they sell their products in plastic as it reduces food waste, but my big questions is: waste for whom?  I can 100% believe that the supermarkets selling four apples wrapped in plastic gives the supermarket less waste.  But for the customer, they are forced to take four apples when they may only want 1 or 2.  Lucky for my apple crumble, but I don't think many people are making apple crumble out of unwanted apples at the bottom of their office fridges!  The number of fridges with food (apples, carrots, pears, mushrooms etc all in plastic) going to waste at the bottom is huge because people have over bought moving the waste away from the supermarket down the food chain.  The number of TV programmes out there covering the issue only goes to highlight this further.  Hugh's War on Waste stated the average family is binning £700 worth of food per year.  That is a huge amount... what will you be making with your slightly-past-their-best carrots or apples?