Waste reduction tips for London restaurants

All businesses have a legal duty of care to dispose of their waste responsibly, and these days companies in the food and hospitality services should be reciting the mantra ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’. Especially in London, restaurant waste reduction is hugely important in terms of cost, environment and space.

If you’re looking to save money by reducing waste, here are our top waste reduction tips:

Fewer waste collections

Use a static or portable compactor or baler for dry waste to help you manage your dry waste in a cost efficient and environmentally friendly way. By compacting your waste, there will be a reduction in the amount of times it needs to be collected; you may even be able to get a rebate on packaging waste that can be sold on. Compactors are used for mixed waste, so there’s no need for your employees to waste time separating waste before disposing of it.

You could also cut costs further by looking for products which come with less packaging in the first place – it’s likely they’ll be more expensive to begin with, and you’ll have the added advantage of having less waste to pay your contractor to take away.

Reuse

Reuse as much as you can in order to prevent waste occurring in the first place. Use refillable condiment bottles and jars rather than individual packets, e.g. sugar, salt & pepper, milk and sauces.

Cut down on the use of disposable items such as plastic cutlery, plates and serviettes. It’ll mean more washing up, but you’ll have a lot less waste to dispose of.

Food waste

The waste prevention charity WRAP estimates that the cost of food being wasted by the UK’s hospitality and food service could be as much as £3bn. Around 34% of that waste is from customers’ plates, so if your waiting staff are bringing a lot of unwanted food back into the kitchen, maybe it’s time to review your portion sizes and either reduce them or offer different plate sizes and encourage people to take doggy bags home.

Whilst food waste from restaurants is inevitable, it doesn’t necessarily have to go to landfill, which could cost your restaurant a lot of money. Look out for companies which will collect waste food which can be recycled into biogas in order to generate electricity. You may even find a company that’ll take it away free of charge.

And if you use large quantities of cooking oil, you could find a company which will collect it in order to recycle it into bio-diesel.

Contact us to find out how your London restaurant could save money on waste disposal by hiring a waste compactor.