Hospo businesses scrap it out to fight food waste

EnviroWaste is working with food and hospitality businesses to serve up an environmentally conscious food scraps collection service that’s intent on taking a big bite out of New Zealand’s food waste problem.

Here’s some food for thought: government figures reveal more than 300,000 tonnes of food waste are sent to New Zealand landfills every year and it’s estimated a quarter of this comes from businesses. With the government now looking at requiring all businesses to collect food scraps separately from other waste materials – many businesses are already a step ahead, says EnviroWaste’s Jamie McEwan.

“With the food and hospo industry coming back to life after Covid, we’re having lots of conversations with businesses about sustainable solutions for food waste. It’s an exciting time with so many with more places committing to a food waste reduction goal. Our mission is to make it easier for businesses to reduce the amount of waste that ends up in landfill by giving food scraps a second life as compost. Not only is that good for their bottom line, it’s good for the earth.

“Separating food scraps ticks all the right boxes: you’re taking a problem waste stream and turning it into a resource that helps grow more food. It’s reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfill, it lowers carbon emissions and saves you money. It’s the circular economy in action,” says Jamie.

“We take your fruit and vegetable peels, scraps of meat, fish and bones, coffee grounds and tea bags, cooked food leftovers, eggshells, bread and dairy, paper towels and composable packaging – it can all go into the one food scrap bin. When it leaves your kitchen, it’s taken to a commercial composting facility, which is set up for large scale organics processing. The whole composting process takes about 10 to 12 weeks.”

Introducing a food scraps stream means that businesses can have the option of using commercial compostable food packaging on their premises. Most compostable coffee cups and food packaging can only be composted in commercial composting facilities.

In addition to its commercial food scraps collection service, EnviroWaste offers businesses waste audits, education and advice. And through EnviroWaste’s partnership with the New Zealand Food Network, industry clients can support Kiwis experiencing food insecurity. Surplus food that can’t be sold is distributed by the network to food hubs across the country, ensuring it gets to where it’s needed most. Any remaining inedible items come to EnviroWaste to be repurposed for stock-feed or composting.