Restaurants

Types of Food Waste

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Americans discard approximately 25 percent of all prepared foods, which results in roughly 96 billion pounds of food waste annually. Green Seal has also reported that restaurants within the United States produce approximately 100,000 pounds of garbage per location on an annual basis. The EPA has identified two main types of food waste: pre-consumer and post-consumer. Of the two, pre-consumer food waste tends to produce the most waste, with recent reports from LeanPath stating that 4–10 percent of all food in restaurants becomes waste prior to reaching the intended consumer. Much of this waste is the result of overproduction, expiration, spoiling, and contamination. On the other hand, post-consumer waste consists primarily of food scraps that have gone uneaten. Overall, both pre- and post-consumer wastes present an ever-growing problem pertaining to the issue of restaurant food waste.

Viable Solutions

In order to combat both pre- and post-consumer waste, it is important to remember that a large majority of these types of waste consist of organic matter and thus can be recycled. Although recycling remains a viable form of reducing restaurant food waste, in reality, it is the last and final option concerning the [Page 752]alternatives to producing waste. Unfortunately, the general public tends to focus on recycling, rather than paying attention to the other two “Rs”: reduction and reuse. While recycling plays a critical role in the reduction of trash that amasses in landfills, it is important for individuals to rethink their consumption of recyclable products in the first place.

Recycle Food Waste

The notion of recycling is a familiar concept to most Americans, although the concept of food recycling is not as widely recognized. The process of food recycling is commonly referred to as composting and involves a system in which organic materials (such as food scraps, yard trimmings, and manures) are broken down into carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass. These elements decompose in a process in which they are specifically engineered to reduce the excretion of methane gas as well as other biogases associated with traditional landfill breakdown of food waste. The option of composting enables foods that traditionally cannot be donated (such as bakery items, or spoiled fruits and vegetables) to be recycled into soil amendment, thus greatly reducing the amount of nonrecyclable food waste. Typical restaurant food items that can be composted are coffee grounds, eggshells, fruits, and vegetables. On the other hand, food items not recommended for composting are dairy products (such as milk), fats (such as grease, lard, and oils), and types of meat because of their tendency to produce unpleasant odors, which in turn attract pests and can offset the composting process.

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