Eco-Friendly Food Service Waste Management Practices by Unidine

Waste Management and Recycling

We’ve all heard a lot about locally grown food and sustainable agriculture, and noticed that increasing numbers of chefs and restaurants have committed to working with farmers to bring the "farm to the table." But the next growing "movement," if you will, deals less with what goes into the kitchen and more with what comes out of it. You guessed it: waste.

The issue of waste management has begun to increase as consumers become more familiar with eco-friendly practices. Foodservice management companies like Unidine deal with multiple kinds of waste: from food scraps, to recyclable materials and disposables, to regular garbage. Non recycled or compostable waste contributes greatly to our nation’s landfills which can release toxic fumes that contribute to global warming.

So the question is, what can foodservice management companies do to reduce waste? And what can you do to, in partnership with Unidine, to begin the process of going green?

Recycling
Recycling is the reprocessing of materials such as glass, plastic, paper and metal. Benefits of recycling include reducing the energy and raw materials needed to produce brand new resources as well as reducing the amount of waste for disposal. More and more companies that have foodservice operations are putting recycling bins in their facilities. There are separate bins for food scraps, bottles, cans, and other disposables (biodegradable ones). What else can be recyclkd? Kitchen oils. Unidine is expanding its recycling of used kitchen oils. These oils can be used as bio fuels to power diesel vehicles and engines.

Composting

Food leftovers are the single-largest component of the waste stream by weight in the United States. Americans throw away more than 25 percent of the food we prepare, about 96 billion pounds of food waste each year. Food waste includes uneaten food and food preparation scraps from residences or households, commercial establishments like restaurants, institutional sources like school cafeterias, and industrial sources like factory lunchrooms. The nation spends about 1 billion dollars a year to dispose of food waste. Food waste recovery and recycling is already occurring across the country. Many businesses are separating excess food into uneaten food for donations and to compost for the remainder. Reusing and recycling excess food saves money by reducing disposal fees. By separating food waste, businesses can inventory the excess food they are creating and then implement source reduction practices to save money.