52 dining & hospitality
New food waste service spearheads drive to cut kitchen waste
From fine-dining restaurants to works canteens and takeaways, every year thousands of tonnes of food waste are thrown away by kitchens in the hospitality sector, writes Alison Dewar
The challenge of reducing that waste and embracing new ways of working is one which Neil Grundon, deputy chairman of Grundon Waste Management, is keen to promote as the company invests £1 million in expanding its dedicated food waste collection service.
“No matter what size your business, there are no excuses for not paying more attention to how your food waste is managed,” said Grundon. “We’re appealing to buyers, owners and managers of dining establishments to become smarter about the way they deal with food and no longer think of it as a disposable commodity.”
He believes that by introducing the principles of “lean manufacturing” many food outlets such as pubs, clubs, restaurants, hotels and canteens could dramatically reduce wastage and improve their bottom line.
At the same time, by analysing the different types of food waste thrown away, he says they could also gain valuable intelligence on issues such as portion size.
“Many other industries have had to streamline production lines to reduce costs and we would like to see the hospitality trade following suit,” continued Grundon. “Traditionally, restaurants are scrupulous about knowing how many customers they are serving and what their purchasing costs are, but when it comes to what they throw away the numbers are much less exact.
“We’d like to see senior managers making food waste a priority and taking it on as an extension of their stock control responsibilities. A kitchen bin can hide a multitude of sins and, in our view, by not regulating what goes into it, businesses are missing out on essential information that can help them plan better for the future.
“By measuring output as well as input, they could find out just how much they are wasting – and that’s money as well as food. It’s much cheaper to reduce wastage at source than it is to pay for it to be taken away.”
To press home the point, Grundon is
www.businessmag.co.uk
Neil Grundon
advocating the 3D system – discount, distribute and dispose – and says the only items which should go into food waste should either be returned meals, out-of-date food (which is down to poor purchasing and stock control), or spoilt food, for example, if there has been a fridge or freezer failure.
To help streamline food waste disposal, over the next 18 months the company is introducing a new range of new 120-litre food waste bins. Unlike the current 240-litre bins, these are designed for in- kitchen use, ensuring there’s no excuse for not monitoring what goes into them.
No bin bags are required and new, rounded bottoms make cleaning easy, while clip- down lids avoid spillage and provide improved security.
Lighter and easier to manoeuvre, the design reduces the potential for manual handling injuries and the bins can be easily weighed at the point of collection. As the scheme expands, Grundon will be offering bin exchanges, ensuring that when a full bin is removed, a fully sanitised
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – SEPTEMBER 2014
clean bin is supplied ready to go straight into the kitchen, and it is also introducing new software to make monitoring and measuring of waste easier than ever.
Not only keen to reduce the amount of food waste thrown away, wherever possible Grundon also wants to divert it from landfill into Anaerobic Digestion (AD) facilities.
Thanks to its network of operations across the Thames Valley and West London, as well as east into Gloucestershire, the waste expert is able to ensure that all its depots have access to AD plants, where food waste is processed and turned into renewable electricity and valuable bio-fertiliser.
Its investment in AD was underlined earlier this summer, when an £11m joint venture between AD specialist Agrivert and Grundon saw a new West London AD plant opened in Surrey, taking food waste from homes and businesses across south London and the home counties.
It will process around 45,000 tonnes of food waste a year and has the capacity to generate 2.4MW of renewable electricity – enough to supply over 4,500 homes. The plant also produces valuable bio-fertiliser that can displace fossil fuel derived fertilisers on over 2,500 acres of farm land.
To find out more about Grundon’s expanded food waste collection service, contact the team on the details below.
Details: Alex Grant Waste Management Sales 01753-686777
alex.grant@
grundon.com www.grundon.com
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