Waste Not, Want Not
Effective Foodservice Waste Management for Today and Tomorrow
By Amelia Levin, Sr. Associate Editor -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 7/1/2009 12:00:00 AM
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| Post-consumer waste to be composted requires careful sorting as waste containing even traces of plastic may be rejected by the composting facility. |
Tractor fuel. Fertilizer. Carbon output from transportation, refrigeration, preparation and hot-holding equipment.
When consumers throw out a grab-and-go sandwich, they impact all of these environmental areas, including agriculture, shipping, storing and cooking processes. And that's just the beginning. Discarding just one uneaten sandwich has profound consequences on “downstream,” meaning the waste processes impact our air and fresh-water sources, according to Andrew Shakman, president and CEO of LeanPath, Inc., a Portland, Ore.-based company which provides waste tracking solutions for foodservice operators.
Poor waste management takes a toll on operations of all shapes, sizes, and segments. Not only do inefficient food ordering and unchecked energy and water use result in escalating bills, but costs to store and haul waste continue to rise, making waste management a critical issue for operators.
“Studies suggest total food waste equates to almost 30 percent of total food purchases,” Shakman says. “And, 4 percent to 10 percent of the food purchased in noncommercial foodservice operations alone ultimately becomes kitchen waste before ever reaching a customer.”
Waste management can involve food-waste tracking, menu planning, pre- and post-consumer waste, composting, recycling, pulping, disposing, biodiesel, food donations and more. This article focuses on strategies to reduce, reuse and recycle (and/or compost) waste in foodservice operations.
Reduce
Foodservice operations generate three waste types: pre- and post-consumer food, packaging, and operating supplies. Pre-consumer waste constitutes discarded trimmings, spoiled food and other unused kitchen byproducts. Post-consumer waste is trash left behind by the consumer.
The first thing an operation should do to reduce the waste it ships to a landfill is to make less waste, Shakman stresses. “There are two different worlds in terms of waste management: One world is waste reduction and the other is waste diversion.”
Waste reduction depends on what Shakman calls the waste hierarchy: Reduce first, then reuse, then recycle and compost what's left.
“My concern is that people are often going straight to waste diversion, and missing the reduction opportunity,” he says. “It's like coming home and finding your kitchen flooded. What's the first thing you do? Look for the source of the water, find the leak, fix it, and then mop up the kitchen. What people tend to do in the food world is the opposite.
“It's a little backwards, but understandable,” Shakman continues. “Reduction, by its very nature, is hard to see. The only way you can understand reduction is through measurement. In our world, we believe reduction and tracking are closely linked concepts if not the same thing.”
Operators can use a macro or micro approach to reduce waste. On a macro level, source reduction, coined by the EPA, refers to altering the design, manufacture or use of products and materials to reduce the amount and toxicity of what gets thrown away. That can mean switching from plastic to biodegradable materials or by producing more bulk-packaged products than the smaller units which rapidly accumulate in landfills.
Among the industry leaders in this emerging area is Wash.-based chain restaurant Burgerville.
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| A foodservice chef tracks pre-consumer food waste by weighing the product before it goes in the compost bin. The accompanying software program collects the data to create more detailed analysis that managers can then use to initiate waste-reduction programs. |
Tracking the Waste
On a micro level, kitchen managers and staff can work to reduce their own waste by logging where, when and what is ultimately discarded. Then, using specialized software or other evaluation methods, staff can see where purchasing, menu planning and waste-sorting procedures might be adjusted to minimize waste output.
Some forms of analysis will indicate when the waste was generated, a helpful information for those looking to understand how the operation uses labor or to assess a menu according to how much of a particular product is selling and when. The more-detailed approaches to tracking will chronicle where food waste goes next, be it a donation center, composting or recycling bin, the garbage, or in another menu item.
Even the type of food waste, such as a specific dairy product can be tracked, which is particularly helpful as food costs continue to rise, Shakman adds. “You need to know where you started to see if you're doing better or worse, and that can really only be accomplished by tracking the waste somehow,” he adds.
Shakman notes that operators new to food-waste tracking don't need fancy software. A calibrated scale works just fine, as will a piece of paper on a clipboard with check-off boxes and space to record numbers.
For large operations, tracking-software reports help operators plan their menus and develop incentives for staff to monitor their waste. Software also helps users identify spikes in waste activity, Shakman says, that might be the result of unsold menu items, purveyors sending spoiled product, or simply ordering more food than is needed.
This was the case with Seattle-based Swedish Medical Center, a nonprofit healthcare provider with three hospitals and multiple satellite centers. The hospital's flagship location, First Hill operates a kitchen providing à la carte room service for patients and catering services. This operation also has four retail outlets that include a cafeteria and physicians' dining facility. A pre-consumer waste-tracking system initiated in April 2008 found that overproduction in the kitchen's chili/soup area was a major source of food waste, according to Kris Schroeder, director of nutrition services.
On a macro level, a year's analysis showed trim waste as the biggest culprit, generating $23,645 in pre-consumer waste; retail overproduction amounted to $26,152 in waste; and patient-meal surplus cost the facility $18,755.
From April 2008 to April 2009, the chili/soup food waste amounted to 10,536 pounds, or $23,129 worth of product. That's 27 percent of the total food waste tracked at the hospital. Vegetable, fruit and bakery waste accounted for about 17 percent, 12 percent and 9 percent respectively.
“Our fresh-fruit tray is one of the more popular items on our room-service menu,” Schroeder says. “So what happens is the staff will come in the morning knowing they need to make 20 fruit trays, but they'll make 30 just in case.”
Swedish's food waste isn't going into the garbage; it's picked up by a local compost vendor or donated to one of several food-recovery programs connected with the hospital. Schroeder says that software makes tracking her department's charitable contributions (a requirement to maintain nonprofit status) much easier. For the 12-month span, Swedish's donations totaled $12,372, mainly in the form of pre-packaged sandwiches and salads.
Moving from large- to small-batch soup production was beneficial, as was working more closely with the hospital's bakery purchasing agent. “It was just a matter of having the buyer clue into what our surplus was,” Schroeder says.
Swedish Medical's kitchen staff has responded well to the tracking program and many, acknowledging tough economic times, are motivated to participate, Schroeder says. Developing games or prizes also helps get employees on board, such as a contest to see who could weigh (track) the most food.
“We've reduced our food waste by 36 percent for the year,” Schroeder says. This represents a savings of about $45,000, and the hospital hopes to do even better, she adds. Systems now are in place at Swedish's two smaller hospitals, Ballard and Cherry Hill.
Reuse
At Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Mich., Chef-instructor Kevin Gawronski makes it a daily priority to not only creatively reuse food scraps but also to educate students. “In all of our classes, production sites and dining outlets … we try to find ways to utilize all the food,” Gawronski says.
Gawronski's initial concern wasn't the environment or even saving money—it was the amount of garbage cans in the kitchen. “They're unsightly,” he says. “I didn't want to waste stainless-steel space by sticking a huge garbage can under the counter or next to the worktables.”
The first step was asking students to set aside the scraps they habitually discarded. ”We found we were throwing away a ton of food trimmings—cores of onions, green peppers, fruit cores, pits, ends of carrots.
“If we told them to julienne green peppers for a dish, by the end of that task they'd have 12 ends of the green pepper, just sitting in the supposedly unusable pile,” Gawronski says. “So I'd have them dice up what they had leftover and put them in a stir fry.” He notes that puréed soups, chili, and other menu items not requiring perfect knife cuts are good ways to use trimmings.
Gawronski encourages students' ideas on how to reduce waste, and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. He credits the college's older, second-career students for their support. “Since we have 30-, 40- and 50-year-olds standing right next to the 20-year-old, they can educate their peers,” he explains. “There is a process of critical thinking that (the younger students) go through.”
By repurposing scraps, Schoolcraft was able to use smaller garbage cans and cut the frequency of trash pickups in half. “Plus, we're saving money by using fewer garbage-can liners,” Gawronski points out.
The school's ordering processes also were examined, and menus were adjusted to use more seasonal products. “Here in Michigan we have a lot of apples. We'll buy them in bulk and then think of alternative uses for them, like taking all the leftover apple peels and cores and making jelly because there's a high amount of pectin in the skin and seeds.”
Operators interested in food-waste reduction should ask themselves some questions, Gawronski says. “Look at how you're moving food through your operation. How does it get from the coolers to the prep station? How much are you pulling out? Do you need to prep all that food? What are you doing with the food when you're working with it? … The idea is to keep it small, keep it visible, and do a faster turnover with what's leftover.”
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| Allyson Ruppenthal |
Recycle/Compost
Once in a landfill, food waste decomposes in an oxygen-deprived, or anaerobic, environment and produces methane, a toxic gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Landfills represent the largest man-made source of methane gas in the United States, accounting for 34 percent of all methane emissions, according to the EPA.
Composting, or aerobic digestion, incorporates air during decomposition by repeated turning of the waste material, preventing the release of methane gas.
“The most important thing for operators considering a composting program is to take one step at a time, but at least begin to look at what's being generated as far as waste goes,” says Allyson Ruppenthal, education and outreach specialist for the Department of Water and Waste Management in Olympia, Wash.
While Ruppenthal has helped schools, universities and roughly 90 restaurants in Thurston County, Wash., implement composting programs, she is surprised that many business aren't taking advantage of readily available recycling opportunities. No. 10 cans of tomatoes aren't regularly recycled because people don't bother to do the step of rinsing them out first, Ruppenthal says. “Then you may have Styrofoam cups, which can't be recycled, but many people don't know that the plastic bags they come in can be recycled. Even plastic film that's used for wrapping other products could be recycled.”
Another problem, she says, is that recycling regulations differ from state to state and people often are misinformed on what can and can't be recycled.
Ruppenthal suggests operators contact their local solid-waste agency to find a facility that accepts food waste for composting, then determine what kind they will take—pre-consumer, post-consumer or both? Facilities may accept both materials, even if there's no one to haul it, she says.
The work of establishing a composting program is the reason it hasn't caught on, Ruppenthal says. “Unfortunately, it's just not mainstream enough yet. We're not used to the organics component, so there are going to be a lot of mistakes and fumbling, but we have to keep pressing forward.”
“On-site composting seems to have struck a chord and a lot of people are investigating,” says consultant Rod Collins of Rod Collins Associates. “A number of colleges have been the first to jump on board with this.”
Collins also reps a line of pulping and dehydrating equipment, some of which will compost on-site. One manufacturer's dehydrator collects pulped food waste and extracts the moisture through a heating element, producing a dry, dirt-like material one-third of its original size and suitable garden use.
Dehydrators are costly and can take up a lot of space, though costs may be driven down as more operators purchase the equipment, Ruppenthal says.
If composting is not an option, disposers provide an alternative. (New York City's Manhattan borough, Las Vegas, California, and Austin, Texas, have outlawed disposers because of sensitive sewer systems and water-treatment challenges.)
“In most cases, waste-water treatment operators measure solids by PPM (parts per million),” Collins says. “This means that water-conservation features on disposers and recirculating water in a pulping or collector system can sometimes be counterproductive.” On one hand, manufacturers are asked to reduce water consumption but, in order to meet the PPM requirement of the local waste-water treatment plant, increased fresh-water consumption may be required to dilute the discharge. Not exactly the answer for areas of the country where water is in short supply, he adds.
“It's not that either party is wrong, it's just, where do we go from here? How do we make things better?” Collins asks.
Packaging Adjustments
While manufacturers are creating eco-friendly disposables made from corn, soy and other natural products, it's not a complete solution, says Phyllis Ann Marshall, founder of restaurant-consultancy FoodPower Inc. Marshall says that reliance on corn for nonfood products rewards large commercial farms but hurts smaller businesses, straining production and forcing prices hikes for food-based corn orders.
Many resist using biodegradable disposables because of the higher price. “They say, 'Oh my gosh, I can't afford that,' but if we recommend that the customer eat the cost, it's usually only like 10 cents per item, which is hardly noticeable,” Marshall says.
Switching from disposables to permanent supplies, such as silverware, can benefit an operation that doesn't rely on takeout business, as can having staff use permanentware during break times.
Composting will become more accessible and affordable as eco-friendly products catch on, Ruppenthal says. “Just in the last year, disposables have really exploded. … People want to do the right thing, and it looks really good for a restaurant to advertise that they're going green.”
Legal Issues
Styrofoam currently is banned in Seattle, a law Collins feels will someday extend across the country. Two years ago, San Francisco became the first city to ban plastic shopping bags.
“Recycling in general is being heavily legislated throughout the country,” Collins says. “Progressive cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and others are making this a priority.”
Certainly, other states will follow when it comes to recycling legislation. Until then, early involvement will ease the transition to mandated processes later. Being proactive in effective waste management techniques, may cost a little more upfront, but making a few changes will save operators money and will help keep the environment friendly.
For more information and resources on waste management options, visit www.epa.gov.
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| A UCSC student sorts through post-consumer plate waste, which will go through a pulping machine before it reaches a composting facility. |
Case Study: University of California Santa Cruz
University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) has long supported the sustainability movement. A pilot composting program introduced this year saved measurable dollars on waste storage and hauling and reduced the institution's carbon footprint.
“We have a very large residential program here so our food waste is really a big piece of our overall budget,” says Candy Berlin, dining services program coordinator. UCSC's five dining halls serve about 25,000 all-you-care-to-eat meals a day, not including items served at its nine retail facilities. “Composting was one area where we thought we could divert at least 40 percent from landfills, and we've been successful doing that,” Berlin says.
UCSC has diverted nearly 85 tons of waste since composting began last September, according to Berlin. The program processes both pre- and post-consumer waste.
Pre-consumer waste goes into kitchen compost bins. Two of UCSC's five dining halls use pulpers to shrink waste; a third pulper will be operating by the end of the year.
UCSC takes the pulped waste to a composting facility a couple times a week. Processed compost is brought back to use as fertilizer for the campus' farm and gardens.
“We still pay tipping fees as a result of bringing the waste to the compost facility ourselves, but we do get credit for the amount we bring,” Berlin says.
The university will incorporate three of its retail facilities into the compost-pick-up route this summer and plans to engage all nine operations in the process.
Ideally, Berlin says, the university would process its compost on-site—a feasible, though expensive, endeavor. “In all-you-care-to-eat as opposed to retail, food waste is hard to control,” Berlin adds.
UCSC initiated trayless dining last September. “We've been measuring plate waste for three years, tracking it and sharing the information with students via posters and other signage,” Berlin says. This move has reduced their per-plate food waste by 38 percent, Berlin says. “Before, we determined that each tray had about 3.8 ounces of waste, and that number has dropped to an average of 2.1 to 2.2 ounces of waste per person. When you're serving the number of meals we serve everyday that adds up to a tremendous savings for us.”
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| The pulping machine at the University of California Santa Cruz breaks down preand post-consumer food waste before collection by third-party compost vendors. The university earns credits for its participation and buys back the compost to use as a soil-aid for its campus gardens. |
Students are encouraged to watch their own consumption. The slogan, “Be a taster, not a waster,” refers to the small cups provided throughout the serveries for sampling.
“We've also worked hard on our signage to identify flavor profiles, indicating if something is spicy, or if there are unique flavors like curry that a student might not be familiar with,” Berlin says.
“In a perfect world we'll be compacting our compost, not our trash,” she says. “Everyone is moving toward the goal of either recycling or composting waste, with the trash can being the smallest container in the dining halls and even around campus. And ultimately I think we will get there.”
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