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Food Waste
Hospitality sector
faces double whammy
on waste
Bars and restaurants across the UK
could be missing a trick when it comes
to customer acquisition by failing to
recycle their waste properly, according
to recent research.
In a study of 500 businesses across
the UK, waste management service
provider, BusinessWaste.co.uk, found
that restaurants, bars and night clubs
are the "worst in the industrial and
service sectors" for recycling their
waste. This is despite a separate study
finding that food waste was one of
the top three issues diners wanted
restaurants to focus on.
The latter report The Discerning
Diner: How consumers' attitudes
to eating out have become more
sophisticated published by the
Sustainable Restaurant Association
(SRA) found that diners not only
want more transparency about how
restaurants operate, but that more
than half will pay more for a meal in a
restaurant that is run sustainably.
It's a double whammy for restaurants
and bars, who, if both reports are
correct, could not only charge a
premium if they sharpened up their
food waste act, they could also save
money by correctly sorting their waste.
"It's no real mystery why this
sector is the worst at recycling," said
BusinessWaste.co.uk
commercial
director Mark Hall. "A drive for lower
staff costs means that corners are often
cut, and that means pubs, clubs and
restaurants tend to send the majority
of their refuse for general waste."
However, it seems some restaurateurs
are getting it right, particularly in
Manchester, where more than 300
restaurants and hotels have signed
up to a local food waste scheme, in a
bid to make Manchester's hospitality
sector the greenest in the UK.
Attracting some of the biggest names
from the sector, restaurants such as San
Carlo, Rosso and The Mark Addy, have
signed up to the food waste collection
service, provided by the Green Chef.
As the ninth largest city in the UK,
Manchester plays a significant part in
the generation of seven million tonnes
of food waste per annum in the UK.
Launched 18 months ago, the scheme
utilises a number of different treatment
processes ranging from in vessel
composting to anaerobic digestion,
both of which ensure 100% diversion
from landfill.
