Food and organic waste is particularly harmful when it decomposes in landfill. Alarmingly, food waste is a major contributor to commercial and industrial waste across all types of businesses, with the highest impact coming from the hospitality and care industries.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Waste that breaks down in landfill conditions produces large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 28 times more potent at trapping heat than CO₂ over a 100 year timeframe. Over 20 years, it’s about 85 times worse than CO₂. Managing how much waste reaches landfill is an important step in reducing your contribution to climate change, which will impact your business and community.
Landfill Space
Sydney is rapidly running out of space to store our rubbish. By 2030, we are expected to completely run out of viable landfill. As commercial businesses are among the most significant waste producing sectors in Australia, it is crucial that we work together to reduce our waste by design. A circular economy model and minimising unnecessary food purchases is the best way forward.
Why It Matters For Your Business
- With the introduction of mandatory food waste separation regulations, your business may be subject to fines and adverse publicity if you do not adhere to the requirements.
- Landfill is already the most costly waste disposal method and will only increase with the capacity restrictions. Dealing with this issue comprehensively will streamline waste disposal costs and give you certainty.
- Your staff and customers care about how a business they work in or frequent deals with food waste. By getting your stakeholders on board you will increase engagement and customer satisfaction to build loyalty and trust.
What You Can Do
The first step to getting on top of the issue is to conduct an audit to measure how much food and organic waste your business generates on a daily and weekly basis. As the saying goes: “What gets measured gets managed”. The audit will also identify what is being thrown out and that will lead to questions such as “did we over-order this week?” or “what can we do with these offcuts?” or “are we sending out servings that are too large and customers always leave left overs on the plate”.
Your Audit Options
- Basic DIY waste assessment. Use the easy calculator to check your waste generation. Conduct a food waste audit as a baseline and review regularly.
- In-depth waste audit. Your local BBP Program Manager can help you undertake a comprehensive waste audit by separating your waste streams, weighing them, and proposing solutions to help you manage your waste. Find out more about waste audits.
If you are an eligible business within the BBP Program area, a BBP officer will contact you to become a member of the Program and offer you a tailored consultation about your business including a waste audit.
Want to get started? Answer this 1 minute questionnaire and we’ll start your free waste audit.