Reducing your food waste can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Depending on your business and industry, there are many ways to repurpose waste or design it out of your operational model to save you money and help your business grow sustainably.
Food Services
- Repurpose your off cuts and trimmings in a new menu item; try pickling, preserving, fermenting, dehydrating.
- Only buy as many ingredients as you need before they spoil, clean your cool rooms regularly.
- Inspire your staff to try making interesting staff meals with excess prep waste or ingredients
- Reduce portion sizes if customers aren’t finishing their meals.
- Organise a coffee ground pick-up.
Office-based
- Have a communal food section in your fridge or utilise ‘use it up’ tape to communicate excess food that can be eaten .
- Have labels to identify ownership and dates of food items.
- Update catering numbers regularly to not over-cater internal events. Offer excess food for staff to take home.
- Install a countertop food waste dehydrator to turn food waste into fertilizer overnight.
- Give away coffee grounds for your employees to use in their gardens.
Aged Care and Childcare
- Fill drink cups to three quarters only and welcome refills.
- Get regular feedback from residents on menu preferences and portion sizes.
- Communicate with the kitchen when activities or residents’ schedules have changed.
- Organise a FOGO (green) bin collection service.
- Install a food waste dehydrator or pulping machine.
- For more specific detail check out: Your Aged Care Business Toolkit or the Childcare Food Waste page.
Sole Trader
- Shop for your pantry and fridge first.
- Only buy what you need.
- Have an end of week ‘use it all’ meal to utlise what’s left over in your fridge .
- Install an at-home compost bin or worm farm.
- Use your Council FOGO (green) bin in available locations, and all NSW councils by 2030.
- Use coffee grounds to improve soil health.
What Everyone Can Do
Whether your business fits into one of the above business types or not, there are steps everyone can take to reduce food waste.
- Educate your team. Most people don’t realise how big of a problem food waste really is. The more they know, the more they care. Have a workshop or add in some food waste tid bits into your team meetings.
- Brainstorm solutions. People are more likely to care about something if they feel connected to the outcome. Involve all staff in the decision making process and let them come up with some creative solutions to reducing your food waste.
- Action the change. It’s great to be knowledgeable about food waste and its solutions, but we can’t solve any problems without putting in the work.
How BBP Can Help
BBP doesn’t just provide educational resources. We also offer waste assessments worth their weight in gold, at absolutely no cost to our members. Our waste assessments will find your worst sources of food waste and help you create solutions to tackle them. It’ll save you time and money in the long run. Learn more about waste audits HERE.
Want to get started? Answer this 1 minute questionnaire and we’ll start your free waste audit.
After you complete a waste assessment or a more in-depth audit, you may be eligible for a grant or rebate to buy waste equipment under the new FOGO (Food Organics and Garden Organics) mandates. We’ll help you check if you’re eligible, decide the best equipment, and apply for the program.
