Are you suffering from Kermit the Frog Syndrome? Folks familiar with Kermit the Frog from his Sesame Street days will know that he once opined “It’s Not Easy Being Green”. Though he may not have been speaking of waste management at the time, the sentiment remains true. In an industry which generates food waste at significant levels and thrives on plastic disposables, it can be a challenge to be green. But fear not. There is hope.

If you’re interested in controlling your waste, there are number of different initiatives you can deploy.

• Every journey of 1,000 miles starts with an audit. Collect all garbage from your kitchen in clear bags from all bins throughout your facility for a period of 3 typical consecutive days. Put bags in a central location and label each with the date, location and waste stream collected e.g. recycling, compost or garbage. Weigh each bag and record. Perform a visual audit on each bag of waste to record the contents of the bag. Now you have a baseline to work off of.
• Create accountability in the kitchen for unnecessary waste (there is also going to be some waste that is unavoidable). Provide each of your prep staff with their own, clear waste container. Each container should be labeled with the chef’s name. This approach prevents your existing community garbage cans from becoming black holes for anonymously generated waste. Check the containers periodically throughout the day. Educate staff who are generating unnecessary waste due to poor technique, poor judgement etc. so they know what is expected of them.
• Consider getting a food waste reduction/prevention system such as LeanPath (https://www.leanpath.com/). The LeanPath system uses software and hardware to track food waste you generate. Items to be discarded are measured and then entered into the system so you can see what your wasting, how much you’re wasting , what it’s costing you so you can address any concerns. For example, if everyday your disposing of 2 gallons of soup that costs you $10, maybe you need to lower your par levels. LeanPath has options for everything from a large hospital to a small QSR.
• “Box The Walk-in” daily y checking the contents for products that are above par levels, approaching their shelf life, are stored in the original packaging etc. Opaque cardboard boxes make it difficult to determine if there is one of the something or 20 of something inside. Whenever possible, transfer product from cardboard boxes to clear food safe plastic containers that can be labeled and dated. As an aside, bugs like to hitchhike in the nooks and crannies of cardboard boxes. Don’t (like vampires) invite them into your kitchen.
• Evaluate your menu to identify waste prone product or menu items. To steal from Chipotle, you should be able to serve a few things, thousands of ways. Key your one-off ingredients to a minimum. The more items you carry in inventory the more possibility for unnecessary waste.

If you want to influence waste outside the four walls of your kitchen, there are a couple of things you can do:

• Use compostable/recyclable disposables for carryout. Yes, they tend to be more expensive but the investment can be worth it if customers appreciate that fact. It may even broaden your customer base.
• Work with vendors to help reduce product packaging or reusable transit packaging. Probably less likely for products you buy from one of the Big Boys but smaller, local vendors may be more willing to work with you. Especially if you explain the mutual benefits to them.

So good luck on your green journey.

Mathew Mandeltort
Co-Founder
ChefWorthy
www.chefworthy.pro