Food waste management

1. Food is where the money is…
Food waste and its prevention in the
commerical sector
Colum Gibson, Clean Technology Centre

2. What do we know about
organic waste in Ireland?
 In Ireland there is almost half a million tonnes of organic
waste generated each year by households and commercial
businesses
 The majority of this is food based waste through it also
includes garden and landscape wastes
 The organic waste is split almost 50: 50 between
commercial and household
 In addition there is significant quantities of process based
organic wastes from industrial food processors and
producers, much of which goes for rendering
Household
51%
Commerce
49%
Organic Waste Generated
in Ireland

3. The SFW Programme – 2 key
parts
• Promotion of food waste prevention message
– Provide information
• Website, materials, newsletter, social media, commercial
information and support, commercial food waste tool
(new)
– National Promotion
• National Events
• Donal Skehan, Sheila Kiely and cookery demos
• Promoting composting
– Provide Information
– Master Composters & Demo Sites

5. Food waste is Expensive
• When thinking about the cost of food
waste, most businesses just think about
the disposal costs – but there are other
costs to consider
• It has been estimated that each tonne of
food waste can cost between €3,000 -
€4,000 – sometimes less, often times
more. That is €4 per kilo of food waste!
This cost includes:
– Costs to buy
– Costs to cook & manage on site
– Cost of disposal The solution to this waste of money for
your business is Food Waste Prevention.

6. Food Waste Prevention
To Prevent Food Waste you must first identify
where and why food waste is being generated
Then come up with solutions to prevent this
waste as close to the wasting point as
possible.
Before you start, consider:
• The main food waste producing business types in your
area
• Typical quantities of food waste generated by different
business
• The main types of food waste generated by different
business

7. What are the main food waste
producing sectors in your area
 Difficult to assess – every area is different
 Best estimate - extract data from the EPA National Waste
Characterisation studies (2008)
Hotel, 27.2%
Food Retail, 23.2%
Restaurant, 15.5%
Offices, 11.1%
Hospitals, 8.1%
Education, 6.1%
Wholesale, 4.6%
Transport &
Communication,
2.7%
General
Retail, 1.6%
Indicates
canteens

8. How much food waste does your
business is produce?
• There are a series of factors (or indicators) in 2008
Waste Char report for each sector
• These indicate the amount of waste generated per
sectoral factor
• Factors used are a best estimate based on information
available
– May not be the best actual factor
– May not have enough data to generate a truly representative
value
– Different sites within a sector may have different set-ups e.g.
hospitals, restaurants, hotels, etc.
– Your business may be better than the norm

9. Estimated Food Waste Factors
Sector Factor Used
Total
Waste/Factor
tonnes
% Food Waste
Organic Waste/
Factor tonnes
G: Wholesale Employee Numbers 1.957 25 0.48925
G: Food Retail Employee Numbers 1.88 37.7 0.70876
G: General Retail
(Drapery)
Employee Numbers 0.832 3.1 0.025792
G: filling stations Employee Numbers 2.5 22 0.55
H: Hotels Bed nights 0.00648 43 0.0027864
H: Restaurants Employee Numbers 1.741 46 0.80086
I: Transport Travel numbers 0.000148 23 0.00003404
I: Communication Employee Numbers 0.436 21 0.09156
J, K & L: Offices (no
canteen)
Employee Numbers 0.126 6 0.00756
M: Education (1st) Student numbers 0.0098 23 0.002254
M: Education (2nd) Student numbers 0.026 38 0.00988
M: Education (3rd) Student numbers 0.042 32 0.01344
N: Hospitals (acute) Hospital Beds 3.09 22 0.6798
N: Hospitals (long stay) Hospital Beds 1.85 25 0.4625
O: Other Employees 0.75 35 0.2625
CANTEEN Emplyees 0.092 62 0.05704

10. Example of use of factors
• If you have a primary school with 200
students then you should be generating:
– 200 x 0.0098 = 1.96 tonnes of total waste
each year
• Of this, the amount of food waste is
– 200 x 0.002254 = 0.45 tonnes of food waste
annually

11. In general there are 3 types of
food waste
Avoidable Food
Waste, 60%
Potentially
Avoidable Food
Waste, 20%
Unavoidable Food
Waste, 20%

12. What food is being throwing
out?
60% Avoidable:
– plate scrapings
– leftovers
– gone off fruit and veg
– passed date items
– damaged stock which cannot be used due to H&S, etc.
20% Potentially Avoidable
– bread crusts or heels made into bread crumbs
– vegetable trimmings used for stock and soups
– meat and fish bones used for stock
– discarded butter for cooking
– old fruit for jams and smoothies, etc.
20% Unavoidable
– banana skins
– animal bones (before or after used to make stock),
– unusable prep waste (e.g. potato peels with soil on them), etc.

13. Where is the food waste being
in businesses
• Different businesses will generate different types of
food waste. The ‘where and why’ depends on the
type of business:
• Food Serving
– Prep Waste
– Plate Waste
– Unserved Food
• Retail/Wholesale
— Out of date…or is it??
— Damaged
— Deli & fresh sales
To identify main areas of food waste then a food
waste assessment is the required

14. 3 types of Food Waste Assessment
General food waste assessment
•Overview of site wide information
•No specifics about where and when food waste is produced
•Every business do this as part of good management practices
Basic food waste assessment
•Origins of the main food wastes are identified
•Information from general assessment broken down according to
where the food waste comes from
Detailed food waste assessment
•Main types of food waste are examined
•Times and reasons of generation looked at
•Can be a time consuming process

15. 1. General Survey of food waste
from supermarket

16. • TIP! Remember, make sure your brown bins are full when being
removed – do not partially fill lots of bins. Waste contractors
usually charge per lift so this will cost you more
• Example - On getting new brown bins for the catering
department, a small west of Ireland Hospital were shocked
when they filled the 6 bins before the end of the first week.
There was almost 0.7 tonnes of food waste being generated
weekly costing ~ €2,800.
• They have since halved their weekly bills through food waste
prevention measures

17. 2. Basic Assessment -
Supermarket Survey
coffee dock, 8%
deli , 30%
shop floor, 4%
butcher, 14%
kitchen, 16%
front bins, 12%
staff canteen, 7%
Household, 9%

18. Canteen Waste Profile
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
Organic Cardboard Paper Plastic Composites Metal Glass Other Wood Textiles
Canteen Surveys - Industrial and Commercial Sites

19. Identify main sources of food
waste
• Food Waste Survey of on-site canteen:
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
40.0%
45.0%
Plate Waste Preparation Waste Unused Cooked Food

20. Examples of detailed surveys
• Food Waste Survey of on-site canteen:
– Breakfast 16.8%
– Lunch 40.4%
– Dinner 42.8%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
35.0%
40.0%
45.0%
Plate Waste Preparation Waste Unused Cooked
Food
14.6%
2.2%
11.7%
9.9%
18.8%
13.8%
8.6%
20.4%
Dinner
Lunch
Breakfast

21. Examples of surveys
• Food Waste Survey of Hospital room:

22. Once you have the info - what do you
do about food waste?
• Different hierarchies have been proposed
Prevention is always the best option

23. A number of useful Guides

24. Hot Tomatoes cost €€€’s
• Monaghan Bar/Restaurant started looking at
food waste as part of LAPN project
• Looked at waste coming back from plates
• Noted that hot tomatoes were not being eaten
• Stopped serving them and saved almost
€2,000!

25. Wedding Functions in 2 Hotels
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
Main Course
Meat
Main Course
Vegetables
Dessert Preparation Total waste
per guest
Waste Generated at Hotel A Wedding
Function
1st Survey
2nd Survey
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
Waste Generated at Hotel B
Wedding Function
• Series of changes made between surveys including:
– Training and awareness
– Change serving process – central plates
– Less trimming of veg and meats
– Better portion control

26. Intel (USA) Canteen
• 12,000 meals a week in 2 cafes, generating 1.4
tonnes of pre-consumer food waste per week
– Overproduction
– Waste trim
– Spoilage
– Expiration
• Implemented food waste tracking and staff training
• Waste down by 47% with savings of 13.2%

27. The on-site management option

28. Sources of information
• www.ghawards.ie
• www.localprevention.ie
• www.greenhealthcareprogramme.ie
• www.foodwaste.ie
• http://www.unileverfoodsolutions.ie/our-
services/your-kitchen/wiseuponfoodwaste

29. Remember, food waste =
money!