Plant-based meat is meat made from plants. It is created to appear, feel, and taste like   41   meat from animal products. The plant-based meat industry has grown immensely   42    a rise in awareness about meat's impact on the environment and on health. The   43   , however, is usually higher compared to animal-based meat. The main reason is that regular meats are mass-produced, while plant-based meats are developed on a   44    smaller scale. In terms of health benefits, alternative meats generally have lower amounts of fat and higher amounts of fiber. But plant-based meats are   45   perfect. They typically have higher amounts of sodium, usually in an attempt to make it more palatable and shelf-stable.

    More than half a trillion dollars—that’s the estimated value of all the stuff that U.S. shoppers bought last year only to return it, more than the economy of Israel or Austria. There's a direct link from returns to the eye-popping scale of U.S. shopping overall. In 2021, U.S. shoppers likely spent a record $4.4 trillion. People tried new brands with unfamiliar sizes after seeing them on TikTok or Instagram. They overbought for the holidays and shopped exceedingly online, where returns are between two and five times more likely than with purchases from stores.
    Where does it all go? According to experts, most returned goods have a very high probability of being in a landfill. That is what consumers don't realize — the life of a return is a very sad path. A lot depends on the product and the store's policies. For example, pricier clothes are very likely to get dry-cleaned and sold again as new. Sealed, never-opened packages might get sanitized and put back on the shelf. Electronics often get resold. Value is the big threshold: Is the product worth the cost of shipping back plus paying someone to inspect, assess damage, clean, repair or test?That's why stores abandon billions of dollars' worth of goods, refunding or replacing them without asking shoppers to send their unwanted items back. Experts estimate that retailers throw away about a quarter of their returns. Every year,U.S. returns create almost 6 billion pounds of landfill waste.
    Luckily, many others get resold to a growing web of middleman companies. Some go to discount, outlet and thrift stores. Some go to sellers on eBay or other websites. Some get donated to charity or recycled. These options have ballooned over the past decade, paving the way for more and more returns to find a new home. As companies compete on flexible return policies, technology is also slowly getting better at avoiding returns in the first place: helping shoppers buy the right-size sweater or picture a new rug inside their room.