How to Reduce Commercial Food Waste
- Commercial
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In the UK alone, we produce around 10 million tonnes of food waste annually, but only 1.8 million of this waste is recycled. Understanding the economic and environmental benefits of the need to reduce commercial food waste delivers huge benefits for business, the local environment and long-term sustainability.
In a Government strategy unveiled by the Environment Secretary in December 2018, it announced its aim to reduce, reuse, and recycle more waste. It stated that it wanted the whole of society, not just businesses, to work together to move away from being a ‘throw-away’ society, to one that looks at waste as a valuable resource.
What is industrial food waste?
In a study conducted by Wrap in 2015 it is estimated that the food and hospitality sector generate over 8 million meals every year, but that over 2.8 million tonnes of food and packaging waste is generated as a result.
This waste, equivalent to throwing away 1 in every 6 meals, is a massive contributing factor to the waste this country currently sends to landfill. Every stage of the process within the food industry and hospitality sectors will have a cost; the further down the line the process and food chain gets, the greater the cost. This means when food is wasted, in addition to the environmental impact it has, money and valuable resources are wasted too.
To have a more sustainable and environmentally friendly process, you’ll also achieve many other benefits:
- Reduced costs
- Reduced waste tonnage
- Increased value and profitability of waste
- Integrated compliant working environment
- Working partnership to achieve full food waste management from production to certification of disposal including the logistics.
Food waste contains a huge amount of water, therefore adding weight to the waste you need removing. In a lot of cases, particularly across commercial and industrial businesses, the associated smell and methane levels generated as a result can be problematic. There is also the added risk of environmental issues around vermin within areas of food waste storage.
What Approach Should You Take?
Whatever industry you work in, there are a range of innovative and comprehensive approaches to waste management. We work with local authorities, food manufacturers and producers, waste management companies, waste brokers, commercial food waste businesses, municipalities and food distribution companies to transform their waste into energy through the Anaerobic Digestion process.
The process of anaerobic digestion is a sustainable process of recycling large amounts of food and animal waste, which is backed by local, national and government regulated bodies.
Food and drink manufacturers are under immense pressure to not only provide quality, keenly priced and attractive products to the consumer but are also under increased pressure to develop, produce and maintain sustainable ways of reducing and recycling their waste.
For a more in-depth conversation with a member of our team about how to reduce comercial food waste and the benefits your business can achieve, contact us today.
Not every business finds a service that ticks every box in terms of their specific requirements, so our experienced team will work with you to understand your needs and create a plan bespoke to your business. They’ll take control of as much or as little as you need them to and support you with regular meetings, reports and environmental data to report impact as a direct result of working with us.
