In Europe the industry that recycled restaurants leftovers into animal feed (by turning it into a foul-smelling but nutritious goop) was broadsided by new regulations restricting the practice after the mad cow/scrapie scare.

And where did I just read that South Korea threw out more food last year than produced in one year in North Korea?

There is waste all over the world. From a logistics point of view, the easiest way to minimize waste is to match supply to demand, and optimize packaging (in the present case, this would mean smaller and more TP rolls if going the 'new' route; to reduce TP consumption, installing those very effective Japanese toilets with cleaning function).
In my experience, this is hardest to implement with private households (tried to no avail with family), and easiest with large-scale entities with predicable needs (school cafeteria with fixed menus, chemical factory with one product, etc.)

Presumably a resort, catering to affluent individuals on vacation, would have a hard time predicting demand, and have to keep a large inventory of partially perishable goods.


Getting back to the economic argument, there is a distinction between economically viable and environmentally responsible. German carmakers have pledged to take back and recycle their used vehicles; surely they are not making € from this, but I laud them for not sending more non-renewable resources to the landfill.