How does your company deal with food waste?

How much food waste does your business generate? If you manage a cafe, restaurant or hotel then you probably have a fair amount of food waste to dispose of each day, and that can often be a problem. You could bag up all of your waste and send it to landfill, but that is not a great idea since it causes environmental damage. A better idea is to look into food waste recycling and see how it can benefit your business.

What's wrong with landfills?

While food waste that is sent to a landfill will decompose and rot away, that isn't the end of the story. Food waste left to rot away in a landfill will generate greenhouse gases, including the particularly harmful methane. In addition to the release of harmful gases, decomposing food waste is also a source of organic leachates that can often be a cause of groundwater and surface contamination.

Why not recycle instead?

Instead of sending all of your food waste to a landfill, there is a great alternative. When you choose food waste recycling, you can turn your food waste into valuable resources such as biogas, soil conditioners and compost. There are several ways that food waste can be composted, and each of them takes the waste product and turns it into something useful.

Hot composting (aerobic window composting) — When food waste is hot composted, it is mixed with other organic waste and mounded rows are created from this waste. The rows are regularly turned to increase the aerobic breakdown of the material and the creation of compost.

Anaerobic decomposition — This process involves breaking down the waste without the use of oxygen. It is used to create biogas, and there are about 60 biogas generation facilities across the country which help to create electricity. The liquid that also results from this process can be used in the creation of liquid fertilisers and soil conditioners.

What are your food waste recycling options?

One of the reasons that so much food waste is not recycled is that people have been led to believe that it is difficult. In fact, there are a large number of food waste recycling options open to businesses. Collections of food waste are often made by both private operators and local councils. In addition, investing in a composting bin or a worm farm is not beyond the means of most companies. If you want to know more, talk to a local food waste recycling company today.