Wasting Away: Reducing Food Waste in Restaurants

Restaurants generate significant quantities of high quality food waste The National Restaurant Association (NRA) has focused all of their sustainability efforts on food waste reduction and for good reason: food waste is a massive issue that drives up the environmental foot print of the entire commercial foodservice industry. Despite the huge amount of food that is wasted, it is one of the sustainability challenges that is most easily solved. A battery of proven techniques and technologies are being deployed to cut pre-consumer waste, divert surplus to food-challenged citizens, reduce the bulk of necessary waste and turn what’s left into valuable compost. Attendees will learn: - Learn about the laws pertaining to commercial food service and mandatory composting - Find out how to avoid adding unnecessary organics to the waste stream and why it’s important to rethink disposables - Learn about technologies that help reduce pre-consumer waste as well as reduce the bulk of post-consumer waste - Learn how to calculate the impact of food waste reduction on your energy and water bill - Find out what other people are doing and hear what the NRA has to say about food waste - Learn about the Bay Area’s world-class commercial food waste composting program