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Economically Sustainable Waste Management

The restaurant waste stream is not the sexiest topic in the industry trade press, but one that screams for attention. It is not a dirty little secret. In the U.S. restaurants waste 11.4 million tons of food annually with an economic impact of over $25 billion, reports ReFED, a coalition to reduce food waste. Add glass, paper, and the environmental impact is significant.

The good news is that your restaurant can significantly reduce its waste stream and cut costs in the process. ReFED’s "Restaurant Food Waste Action Guide" calculates that each dollar restaurant operators spend on preventing food waste saves them $8.

Inventory

Let’s start with stemming food waste. Inventory management is the first place to look for savings. Over-ordering leads to food spoilage and waste.

"A lot of restaurant operators, especially the independents, believe that because they’re in the restaurant every day they have a great line of sight into how much stock they should maintain," says Toby Malbec, managing director of ConStrata Technology Consulting.

Restaurant trash removal is not cheap, but there are ways to save money and improve your business’s sustainability. This article explores how reducing waste, recycling, negotiating with vendors, and training staff can add up.

As a result, adds Malbec, operators tend to default to ordering and inventorying the way they have always done it without thinking about efficiency. This kind of strategy might be easy, but it is not always wise. Over-ordering means that too much cash flow is tied up in items that are sitting in dry storage or, worse, in the walk-in, where products must be used while they are still viable.

Malbec recommends using data-driven inventory management systems that use dynamic PAR levels. These systems forecast inventory based on real-time sales data. If tomato-based items are selling less because of hot weather, for example, the PAR will be adjusted down to reflect current usage. This has the potential to save money on both ordering and by reducing the amount of ingredients that spoil before they are used.

Izzy Kharasch, president of Chicago-based international foodservice consulting company Hospitality Works, Inc, explains that independent restaurant operators are purchasing pre-made products rather than making inventory from scratch, simply because of a lack of staff. The upside is less raw inventory with pre-made products, which leads to less waste.

Composting

Even operators who take food waste seriously wind up throwing away unusable food and food scraps, such as eggshells or vegetable ends. Composting food waste reduces the overall volume of trash, saving money, while producing a value-added product.

Finished compost can be put on a restaurant garden, where it nourishes growing food. Since composting reduces the amount of methane, a greenhouse gas that is released as landfilled waste breaks down, restaurants that compost can promote their sustainable actions on social media, appealing to consumers who are increasingly concerned about the environment.

Traditionally, the composting process is time-consuming and, to be honest, stinky. Operators in urban markets worry about animals getting into the compost pile. Kharasch mentions 24-hour composter machines that turn restaurant food waste into black gold in a day, circumventing the smell and time associated with the compost process.

Cooking Oil Disposal

"In many cities, companies are fighting for [used cooking] oil," Kharasch says. "They’ll give you a bin and all your oil goes in there. It doesn’t cost you anything, and you get a little bit of money for your oil."

Many companies these days use a rebate model to pay customers for used cooking oil. They collect oil from indoor or outdoor bins, which are given to customers for free. When the bin is full of oil, the company will take it away. Customers receive a rebate when the oil is collected. Mahoney Environmental is a nationwide cooking oil recycling service, with most locations concentrated along the coasts. They offer two types of rebates, fixed and market value. Fixed rebates pay a set rate per pound. Market value provides monthly rebates tied to the market value of used cooking oil.

Getting some money for a product that would otherwise be thrown away is attractive; but there are challenges. The cooking oil needs to get from fryers to the collection bins. Cleaning fryers and handling cooking oil is a messy job. Operators might find that it is not worth assigning the task to staff, who may quit if they find the job unpleasant. You risk theft of the cooking oil if it is stored in bins outside the restaurant.

One alternative for cooking oil disposal is to work with a fryer maintenance service like Filta, a Florida headquartered company with an international network of franchisees. Filta does not offer oil disposal as a standalone service. It is part of their fryer management service, offered by 130 franchise locations across the U.S.

Cristian Nechuta, general manager of Filta Environmental Kitchen Solutions in Miami, Florida, explains the process. "We microfilter the oil to extend its life, or if it cannot be microfiltered, we do the dumping. In the meantime, we do a vacuum-based deep cleaning of the fryer. We take the oil with us. We don’t charge them for collecting the oil. We charge them for the microfiltration, dumping, and deep cleaning."

Nechuta runs through the most frequently mentioned benefits of recycling fryer oil: "Improved public health, reduced environmental impact, you don’t have to have the black bin outside, more efficient waste management." In his opinion, there is another benefit that operators often overlook, which is the impact on employees. "Almost no one wants to deal with used cooking oil and fryers," he says.

Nechuta recalls visiting a foodservice operation which had three fryers. The store was using one fryer out of the three because none of the employees wanted to clean the fryer. By outsourcing fryer management to Filta, the store would regain the use of the three fryers they owned, with benefits in efficiency.

Filta charges from $70 to $90 for the first 100 pounds of oil, Nechuta says. Cost depends on the area, and his market of Miami is expensive. Frequency of the service depends on use, but he provided a couple of examples to help potential clients understand how Filta’s fryer management service could benefit their bottom line.

One of his clients is a cafeteria. Filta comes on Monday and replaces the cooking oil after a busy weekend. On Wednesday they filter the oil. Friday, they come back and dump the oil going into the busy period. Dumped oil is carted away for recycling. Restaurants are not paid for the oil in this circumstance. Micro filtering removes sediments and leftover food particles that are sus- pended in the cooking oil. These substances can discolor the oil and affect the flavor of the food. Going too long without filtering or changing fryer oil can lead fried food to develop an off taste. Customers notice.

The average cost of cooking oil has quadrupled since 2019. Finding ways to extend the life of fryer oil without sacrificing quality and flavor should be top of mind for independent operators. Nechuta estimates the company’s cafeteria customer saves $4,000 per year in cooking oil, because filtration helps extend the oil’s lifespan.

In many cities, companies are fighting for [used cooking] oil… they’ll give you a bin and all your oil goes in there. It doesn’t cost you anything, and a little bit of money for your oil.

He mentions another customer in downtown Miami, a fried chicken restaurant that has four fryers. "They were dumping almost every day because they were selling a lot of chicken," he says. Now, Filta goes there five times a week to manage their fryer oil. "They will save $20,000 a year in cooking oil and our service is gonna be for free," Nechuta estimates. The restaurant still must pay the cost by pound for oil management. However, the service saves them so much money that it more than makes up for the out-of-pocket.

In a press release, Tom Dunn, CEO of Filta’s corporate franchise group, estimates that over five million gallons of used cooking oil are recycled every year by Filta’s 130-plus franchisees. To date, Filta has recycled nearly 1 billion pounds of used cooking oil into biodiesel fuel. Every pound of biodiesel that is used prevents 16 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

Recycling

Kharasch believes that restaurants should sort their trash and recycle items; but many operators do not recycle because they lack the systems and training to support it.

Kharasch believes that cities should take measures to require commercial foodservice operators to recycle as part of sustainability efforts. That said, well-intentioned municipal initiatives to encourage recycling fall short without them economically supporting restaurant owners to encourage these practices.

Kharasch says restaurant operators end up putting everything into garbage. They are paying for garbage collection. They would have less garbage and theoretically pay less if recycling was sorted out. But they do not have the funds to pay for the labor to sort recyclables or arrange for a separate waste hauler to take them to be recycled.

A report issued by the Glass Recycling Foundation (GRF) indicates that a lack of funding and infrastructure discourages operators who wish to recycle from doing so. "Many communities and recyclers recognize the benefits of recycling glass but struggle to do so because of a lack of funding," wrote Laura Hennemann, GRF secretary and senior vice president of sustainability and corporate affairs at Strategic Materials Inc, in a press release about the impact report. GRF estimates that only one-third of glass is recycled.

"A busy restaurant does not have the time or inclination to separate bottles, find a place to return them, and get the money for them," says Kharasch, who used a glass grinder at one of his restaurants. "The nickel per bottle is not going to cover the amount of labor it takes to separate those things."

"We could very quickly pre-sort the bottles. Someone would dump all the bottles into the grinder which ground the glass to dust. You could get 20 cases of beer bottles into each bag," he explains. Since the glass was pre-ground and sorted by color, he could find local companies to recycle it. Sometimes they got money for recycling the glass; other times it was cost-neutral.

A 2011 report from the Glass Packaging Institute offers encouragement to operators who are interested in recycling glass. They found that glass recycling programs resulted in only a small increase in cost for restaurants or were, in some cases, cost-neutral. Echoing Karasch’s comment that restaurants are not willing to recycle glass if it means paying a separate fee, the report adds that, "Of those programs initiated by a hauler/recycler, all either pick up at no charge or at a fee that allows for an overall cost neutral to participating businesses. Some haulers/recyclers also supply outside storage containers as part of the fee."

The 2011 report found glass recycling costs ranged from no charge to $25 for a once/weekly collection of a 96-gallon tote, up to $125 for more frequent picks up larger containers. The average weekly cost of glass recycling pickup was $40-$50 per business.

The report includes quotes from a client who said that glass recycling was cost-neutral for them but came with other benefits. Their glass recycling program was part of a community-wide effort in which every player was a local business. There was a sense of civic pride in creating this initiative that was doing good for the environment. Positive news stories like these can generate PR which in turn can introduce the restaurant to a new audience of sustainable consumers ready to support businesses that take the extra steps when it comes to lowering their environmental impacts.

Kharasch is more optimistic about operators’ cardboard recycling practices. He says that clients will break down cardboard boxes, strap them, and sell them to a company that buys cardboard. The economic benefits of cardboard recycling might be more apparent. "By strapping their cardboard, a lot less cardboard goes into their dumpster which saves them money because now they have room for more garbage."

Lean on the Experts

"A lot of restaurateurs don’t take the time to call the trash collection company and speak to a representative," says Kharasch, who has found trash companies helpful in reducing costs if you ask for their advice based on industry knowledge on best practices, recycling initiatives, and strategies to minimize waste generation.

"Owners just want their trash picked up and they don’t think about it," says Kharasch. "The company can help select the right-sized dumpster. You can also negotiate the number of pickups for a week. The more pickups you have, the higher your bill." As when working with all vendors, enter the discussion with an attitude of building rapport and maintaining communication.

TRAINING STAFF TO BE WASTE CONSCIOUS

As with many challenges facing operators, the solution often starts with staff training. Bussers and servers are focused on clearing tables and getting plates to the dishwasher. In their rush to get back onto the floor, napkins and silverware sometimes wind up in the rubbish bin. This leads to extra charges for linens and silverware.

In other cases, a lack of awareness of proper disposal can create problems. One operator mentions a frequent issue at his restaurant: coffee grounds are dumped in the sink rather than thrown away. Over time, the coffee grounds and oils clog the sink and necessitate a call to the plumber.

Kitchen staff can make errors that impact the garbage bill, too. Two examples are over/under portioning and using the wrong amount of an ingredient in recipes. Using too much of an ingredient leads to shortages. Underutilizing the ingredient leads to spoilage. All those spoiled ingredients go in the rubbish bin, compounding the cost.

By addressing these and other staff-side errors, operators can reduce the amount of waste that is produced. They can also save on linen, small wares, and plumbing service calls.

As a first step to reducing waste, operators should create guidelines for staff that address each of these topics from a waste management perspective. When bussers have a checklist to follow, they will be reminded to separate linen and silverware. When cooks have a standard recipe in multiple batch sizes, they will be less likely to make a math error that underutilizes ingredients.

Another operation best practice is having clearly labeled containers that are easily identifiable for busy employees. If a restaurant composts waste and recycles glass in addition to a rubbish bin, there should be three visually distinct and clearly labeled containers in the back of the house. Using different colored garbage cans, for example, provides a simple way for employees to tell quickly. Along with color-coding waste cans, operators should use symbols and words to indicate the specific types of waste intended for each container. For example, a black waste bin has a sign reading garbage.

A green compost bin has a sign reading compose. A blue recycling bin has a sign that says recycling and lists what items are acceptable. Considering language diversity among restaurant staff, signs should include the most common languages spoken by staff.

COLORADO FOODSERVICE COMPOST ORDINANCE

In March 2023, the leaders of the city of Aspen, Colorado passed an ordinance requiring all commercial businesses holding a retail food license to separate organics from substances designated for trash disposal.

Keeping organic material outside in urban environments tempts wildlife, from bears in Aspen to more common pests like rats. Decomposing food smells, and no one wants to associate a bad smell with a restaurant. Then there is the time burden of educating employees in a new set of practices, as mentioned earlier.

The city’s Department of Environmental Health and Sustainability is paying to support the new initiatives. This relieves restaurant owners of needing to invest in equipment to comply with the new law. The proposed ordinance was met with resistance from operators who worried about training employees and policing waste disposal to adhere with new laws. However, other operators supported the measure and did not think it would take more than five to ten minutes of employee time once staff were trained in best practices.

TRASH TIPS

When it comes to recycling, there are some common-sense steps to do it most efficiently:

• Be sure that recycling and trash bins look different from each other and are clearly marked. Both types of bins should be conveniently located in the kitchen and bar areas so employees will use them.
• Take time to train employees about what gets tossed in which bins. Be as specific as possible how various products are recycled, even using product names. For example, cans from the XYZ Company get recycled, but the ABC Company containers go into the trash.
• Create a "Do’s and Don’ts" list for recycling and post it on the bulletin board or at workstations.
• If your establishment is self-serve, post signs letting customers know that you are recycling and what they should do with their bottles and cans. Either put out a bin for these items, or have customers leave them on a designated counter for collection by your staff.
• Be sure that your ground crew knows to keep yard waste separate from other waste.
• Ask your waste hauling service for advice about keeping recyclables and wet waste separate. Depending on their trucks and equipment, they may want to give you separate containers for trash and recyclables.
• Research the feasibility of investing in a mini-cardboard baler, can crushers, and glass pulverizing equipment. This equipment will allow for efficient management of space and may increase the likelihood of favorable recycling service contracts.
• Let your patrons know that you recycle. It creates goodwill and a favorable impression of your restaurant.