Waste Management Plan
It is important to develop an overarching waste management plan to ensure all foodservice materials are properly recovered. A waste management plan identifies waste streams produced from on-site operations and takes into consideration locally available infrastructure.
Blue Action: Create an overarching waste management plan.
Components of a waste management plan to keep in mind include:
- Identify local waste management partners and haulers you can trust to properly and transparently handle your waste streams including compost and recycling.
- Designate an internal sustainability lead responsible for overseeing the waste management strategy and implementation, working with all relevant team members and external waste haulers.
- For events: establish a “green team” (can source volunteers by partnering with local nonprofits) responsible for gathering and sorting waste post-event for best practice to avoid contamination.
- Optimize bin design and placement.
- Ensure that the selected bins match the waste streams you are producing, as well as the amount of waste produced in each stream. “Right-sizing” bins and selecting an appropriate frequency of collection is both cost-saving and more efficient.
- Always pair bins together so that compost/recycling/landfill bins are adjacent to each other to improve sorting and reduce contamination. If bins are separated, most guests and/or employees will not travel to sort their waste, especially in crowded or highly trafficked areas. Contaminated waste streams are often compromised and forced to be sent to landfill or incineration.
- Use clear signage to indicate the different bins for composting / recycling / landfill, identifying which items go into each bin to educate guests and reduce contamination.