Redefining Foodservice Waste Management: What's Next (exerpt)

Redefining Foodservice Waste Management: What's Next

By Andrew Shakman, President, CEO LeanPath, Inc. -- Foodservice Equipment and Supplies

With these challenging economic times – and in a society increasingly focused on sustainability – it's no longer advisable for operators to treat waste as a peripheral concern. We spend massive dollars to purchase food and supplies that become waste and our discards make a huge, negative impact on both our financial results and the environment. Cutting waste makes sense – and it also happens to be one of the least painful ways to remove costs, avoiding the negative shockwaves of staff reductions or menu changes.
For these reasons, foodservice operators should make waste management one of their top priorities. This starts by redefining their thought processes to recognize that waste management is not about garbage – it's about reforming inefficient policies, procedures, and behaviors that lead to many types of waste. Managing a foodservice operation's waste cannot be delegated to a facilities manager or waste hauler; it requires hands-on knowledge of food service and production. Operators will need to master new best practices, deploy new tools and build new partnerships to usher in a new era of high efficiency and low waste. The following are trends to watch and concepts to master in 2010.

The Rise of Three Top Priorities
Foodservice operators have many potential waste management issues to address. Three leading issues have emerged in most waste management plans as primary considerations worthy of initial and sustained attention:
1. Pre-Consumer Food Waste.
2. Post-Consumer Food Waste.
3. Packaging Waste.

Here are 10 concepts and trends foodservice operators should master if waste management is a priority:
1. Ranking Waste Management Goals
2. Applying Sustainability Standards to Waste
3. Understanding & Striving for Zero Waste
1. Tracking Food Waste
2. Reporting on Green ROI
3. Reusable Serviceware over Disposables
4. Supporting Regional Commercial Composters
5. Taking a Fresh Look at Garbage Disposers
6. Deploying On-Site Processing Systems
7. Looking Beyond 2010

Here are a few trends on the horizon:
• Customers Demand More Information.
• Regulations Exclude Food Waste from Landfills.
• Regulations Prevent Use of Non-Compostable and Non-Recyclable Disposables.
• Waste to Energy Plants