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

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)
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
G: Food Retail
1.88
37.7
G: General Retail (Drapery)
0.832
3.1
G: filling stations
2.5 22
0.55
H: Hotels
Bed nights 43
H: Restaurants
1.741 46
I: Transport
Travel numbers 23
I: Communication
0.436 21
J, K & L: Offices (no canteen)
0.126 6
M: Education (1st)
Student numbers
0.0098
M: Education (2nd)
0.026 38
M: Education (3rd)
0.042 32
N: Hospitals (acute)
Hospital Beds
3.09
0.6798
N: Hospitals (long stay)
1.85
0.4625
O: Other
Employees
0.75 35
0.2625
CANTEEN
Emplyees
0.092 62

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

11. In general there are 3 types of food waste

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

18. Canteen Waste Profile

19. Identify main sources of food waste
Food Waste Survey of on-site canteen:

20. Examples of detailed surveys
Food Waste Survey of on-site canteen:
Breakfast 16.8%
Lunch 40.4%
Dinner 42.8%

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
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 option27

28. Sources of information

29. Remember, food waste = money!