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WASTE REDUCTION & RECYCLING TIPS FOR RESTAURANTS

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Whether you are running a fast-food, full-service restaurant or fine dining establishment, finding ways to increase profit margins without affecting your customers’ dining experience is important to the survival of all restaurants.

So how do you increase the bottom line and do your part for the environment? A key solution for restaurant owners in increasing profit margins is to practice recycling and waste prevention.

Through periodic reviews of work practices and some resourcefulness, restaurants can find ways to cut purchasing, waste disposal, and utility costs, without having a negative impact on food quality or service.

While waste reduction and recycling will cut disposal costs, the biggest economic benefits come from resource efficiency. Smart purchasing and use of supplies will save businesses the most money of all waste management practices.

Waste Reduction Tips

Restaurants can do a lot to minimize or reduce these potential cost increases by incorporating simple recycling and waste reduction programs that eliminate much of the waste otherwise thrown away.

  • Take frequent inventories to avoid spoilage and over-purchasing.
  • Follow the first-in, first-out inventory system procedures.
  • Encourage staff to check existing stock to ensure that food is rotated, with the newest items placed at the back of shelves or coolers.
  • Consider using a computerized inventory tracking system to help better analyze inventory levels and spending while projecting future needs.
  • Improve purchasing and inventory control by installing order-tracking software to count the number and type of entrees, appetizers, desserts, etc. ordered each day. Such software can be programmed to account for the quantities of ingredients used per dish, providing a total for how much of each ingredient to keep in stock.
  • Inspect products when received. Ask staff responsible for receiving deliveries to thoroughly inspect the items, to reduce disposal of unusable produce, meats, and other perishables.
  • Store food in reusable containers to prevent dehydration, spoilage, and leakage. Many food items are delivered in 1-gallon and 5-gallon plastic tubs that can be reused for this purpose.
  • Transfer food delivered in paperboard, plastic film bags, or cardboard boxes to reusable containers for storage after initial opening.
  • Purchase shelf-stable products in bulk. For example, instead of purchasing pre-portioned packages of coffee, scoop bulk coffee into filters using a measuring cup.
  • If appropriate for your establishment, purchase precut and pre-prepared food items to reduce food preparation wastes.
  • Prepare a combination of recipes to use up all of a food product. For example, broccoli stalks left over from cutting florets can be used in soups.

Additional Waste Reduction Tips by Group

Bar & Beverage

Reduce waste when purchasing supplies for serving beverages. Choose what would work best for your operation, based upon your daily volume of customers, available space and style of service.

  • Replace bottled and canned soft drinks and beers with fountain or draft drinks. This will eliminate the need to store and then recycle or redeem bottles and cans.
  • Buy bar mixes in concentrate and other beverages in bulk, if space permits. This will save money and reduce packaging waste. Products purchased in bulk are often sold at a discount.
  • Replace cocktail napkins with permanent coasters.
  • Replace disposable paper coffee filters with reusable metal or nylon filters.

Appliances & Equipment

Properly maintaining kitchen equipment and appliances will make these items last longer and work more efficiently. Proper maintenance can also reduce energy and water costs, while lessening the likelihood of kitchen disruptions due to equipment or appliance failure.

  • Schedule routine cleaning and maintenance for all refrigeration and HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems. Clean refrigerator coils and change filters in air conditioners regularly.
  • Prevent refrigerated air loss. Make sure doors to walk-in and reach-in coolers and freezers close tightly.
  • Keep oven equipment calibrated to prevent overcooking.
  • Extend the life of your fryers and fryer oil by cleaning fryers and filtering oil on a daily basis.

Grocery Items 

  • Use refillable condiment bottles and refill them from condiments purchased in bulk (e.g. four 1-gallon, 5-gallon foil pack) containers.
  • Use health department-approved, refillable condiment dispensers (e.g., cream for coffee, ketchup, etc.) instead of using portion-controlled packets whenever possible.
  • Consider buying pickles, mayonnaise, salad dressings, and the like, in containers other than the hard plastic pails or buckets.
  • Consider buying your lettuce precut during those times of year when the precut cost is equal to (or less than) the true cost of the bulk product.
  • Consider buying eggs shelled in bulk if your egg usage for general cooking or baking is 3 or more cases per week.

Paper and Janitorial Supplies

  • Ask for and purchase paper products made from recycled materials. Available items include toilet tissue, paper towels, napkins, place mats, bags, menus, and more.
  • Styrofoam displaces in excess of four times the amount of storage and disposal volume than its paper equivalent does. Consider switching to paper packaging to reduce the volume of garbage being generated, if a large part of your garbage consists of foam containers.
  • Serve straws from health department-approved dispensers rather than offering them pre-wrapped.
  • Use reusable table linen and dinnerware (including china, glass, and silverware).
  • Consider using plastic trashcan liners made of recycled HDPE instead of ones made of LDPE or LLDPE. They contain fewer raw materials, work equally as well (or better) for most uses, and generally cost less, too.
  • Purchase cleaning supplies in concentrate, rather than in ready-to-use (RTU) form; then portion them into properly labeled dispensing bottles.
  • Use multipurpose cleaners that can be used for all types of surfaces rather than cleaners that are job-specific (e.g., stainless steel cleaner). Whenever possible, consider using cleaning agents that are either the least toxic or nontoxic in nature.

Recycling Tip 

Recycling can reduce your garbage removal bills. The majority of restaurants are required or encouraged to recycle by local law. Be sure to take a look at what is going into your trashcans and dumpsters.

  • Set up a cardboard and/or glass recycling program with one of your local garbage collectors.
  • Donate empty plastic pails or buckets to schools, nurseries, or churches; give them away, or sell them to your customers.
  • Donate old uniforms to thrift shops.
  • Donate edible leftover food to a community food bank, shelter or church group.
  • Consider working with an organics vendor to determine if off-site composting is a feasible alternative to disposal of food waste.
  • Consider a trash compactor as a means of reducing dumpster tips or container pulls.
  • Consider a Baler to bale cardboard and other recyclables in order to remove it from your waste stream.

Remember, all the information presented here can help your restaurant get started on the way to a better bottom line through reduced waste. Recycling usable waste goods makes an excellent combination for your business and the environment.

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