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Best 8 Ways to Manage Rubbish in London Restaurants

In the restaurant and catering industry, a lot of waste is generated every day, which is why waste disposal is an important issue.

Waste not only pollutes the environment, but also costs cash. However, with simple means, as a London hotelier, restaurateur, restaurant manager or chef, you can ensure that your company generates less rubbish and reduces the cost of waste disposal.

In this article we introduce tips for London restaurants on how to optimize their waste management and avoid waste and pollution.

Avoiding Rubbish in the Catering Industry: saving money and protecting the environment.

The cheapest waste is the one that doesn’t even accumulate. To identify where your company can avoid waste, you must first analyse your previous processes. From planning, shopping, storage and preparation to the dishes served at the guest’s table: there are potential savings everywhere.

Managing Packaging Waste

Packaging waste, for example, can be reduced relatively easily: detergents and food should always be bought in large packs or large containers, drinks in reusableFood-waste-and-packaging-waste-to-be-reduced-in-restaurants-and-catering-companies containers, fruit and bread in reusable boxes or bags. In addition, packaging material does not have to end up directly in the bins. All over the world, hotels, restaurants and cafés show that great decorations and furnishings can still be made from them. You can find out how to do this in the upcycling blog post.

The breakfast buffet in hotels also offers a lot of potential to avoid garbage. Bread spreads such as butter, jam and nut-nougat cream can be offered just as well in larger bowls instead of portion packaging. Guests can then put their favourite spread either in small bowls or even better directly on the plate. Carafes are suitable for juice, milk and water. This not only avoids garbage, but also looks classy. Honey and ketchup can be offered in donors.

Managing Food Waste

In addition to the many, mostly unnecessary packaging, it is above all the food waste that makes up the largest amount of waste in the catering and hospitality industry. According to a research project by the Federal Environment Agency, 44 percent of food in restaurants, large kitchens or event catering ends up prematurely in waste.

Large kitchens, such as those found in hospitals, produce most food waste due to plate residues. In restaurants and hotels, an above-average number of leftovers are generated during the preparation. In order to avoid unnecessary waste – especially food – from the beginning, we have 8 more tips for you that are easy to implement:

8 Tips to Manage Waste in London Restaurants right from the Start:

  1. Store your Ingredients correctly: To prevent food from degenerating before preparation, proper storage is important. Always arrange your food according to its best-before date/purchase date – for example, the freshly purchased ingredients at the back, and the existing stocks at the front. Storage boxes facilitate the organization of food.
  2. Buy better Kitchen Utensils: Use special knives to peel fruit and vegetables or to fillet meat or fish. As a result, less waste ends up in the rubbish during preparation.
  3. Say Goodbye to Disposable Items: Fabric instead of paper napkins, glass instead of plastic straws and coasters made of wood or glass: avoid disposableReducing-food-waste-in-London-restaurants-and-hotels items and disposable dishes and instead rely on sustainable, reusable alternatives.
  4. Offer two Portion Sizes: If many guests let a portion of their dish go back, the portions may be too large. Restaurants that don’t want to reduce the portions in principle – after all, some guests are also happy about a lavishly filled plate – can offer the dishes in two sizes. If only a lot is left with certain dishes, restaurants can start here and only adjust the portions there.
  5. Introduce Meals of the Day: Ingredients that are about to expire or that you have left in small quantities are perfect for special dishes of the day. Alternatively, prepare small appetizers from these ingredients and delight your guests with a greeting from the kitchen.
  6. Offer Takeaway Dishes with a Reusable System: Takeaway is also possible without additional packaging waste. You can offer your guests to bring their own containers. Or: You are introducing a kind of “reusable deposit system” for your containers.
  7. Involve your Customers: Tell your guests that you want to make your restaurant more sustainable and ask for their help. Example: To avoid waste at the buffet, you can ask guests by means of signs to get a smaller serving more often. In the toilets you can therefore draw attention to the economical use of paper towels.
  8. Reduce your Menu: Make a note of which dishes are most frequently ordered on your menu and which may be rare or not in demand at all. Swipe these dishes and instead put on a small menu of fresh, changing seasonal and regional products. Another option: let your guests choose the supplements separately to the main course. In this way, only what is really desired is ordered.

Of course, rubbish in restaurants cannot be completely avoided. With these tips, however, you will already significantly reduce your waste generation. But your company can also save money when recycling or disposing of waste:

Save Costs by separating Waste like Professionals

In addition to waste prevention, proper waste separation is the most effective way to optimise waste disposal in the hospitality sector. In addition to paper and cardboard, glass, plastics, metals and bio-waste, there is now also a separate storage obligation for wood, textiles, and other waste. If you consistently separate waste, you not only meet the legal requirements, but can also significantly reduce the residual waste generated. This reduces waste costs.

In gastronomy, waste can occur in a variety of types of waste, including:

  • Leftovers
  • Cooking oil
  • Paper and cardboard
  • Glass
  • Metal
  • Plastic
  • Wood
  • Textiles
  • Bio waste

Knowing how to separate and dispose of these professionally can often be difficult and time-consuming, which is why rubbish removal companies in London like London Rubbish Removal can remove your rubbish in London for you in a professional manner, disposing of it as required legally.

 

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Manuela Willbold
Manuela Willbold
Blogger and Educator by Passion | Online Media & PR strategist for ClickDo Ltd. | Fascinated to Write Blogs in News, Environment & Education I have completed a journalism summer course at the London School of Journalism and manage various blogs for ClickDo Ltd.