It's called the office candy dish problem. You grab a jellybean,but it's not the flavor you want. Pawing through for your favorites is irritating in terms of time, energy, or efficacy. It also annoys your office mates. In an odd way,it's the same problem for those in manufacturing, power generation, and elsewhere. They want a specific subset of molecules or other bits; however,getting that subset can consume huge amounts of energy.
Source: phys.org