Boris Johnson is inviting restaurants, pubs, canteens, quick-serve outlets, retailers, wholesalers and hotels to join a food waste reduction scheme that could save businesses an estimated £10,000 a year.
The Food Save scheme is inviting 200 small food businesses to apply to join the free scheme that has already helped 15 small businesses reduce waste by 70 tonnes, making a combined saving of £100,000 a year.
The project is funded by the Mayor of London, European Regional Development Fund and London Waste and Recycling Board and being delivered by the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) and Sustain.
Victoria Moorhouse, senior operations manager at the SRA, said: “Food Save is making very good progress towards its ultimate target to divert more than 1,000 tonnes of food waste from landfill, reduce over 150 tonnes of food waste and save businesses over £350,000.
“The power of what we are doing with Food Save is measuring the impact that these interventions make to food waste and the resulting cost savings. By making staff aware of what they are throwing away and how this impacts the bottom line helps to shape behaviour change and this is the key to making change last. The lessons we learn will help us to drive down food waste across the UK hospitality sector, saving businesses money while also diverting waste from landfill.”
The SRA team will work with technology group Winnow to run detailed food waste audits for restaurants, hotels, pubs, quick service restaurants and canteens to analyse the food waste they produce and allow the SRA to advise how to reduce this over time.
To apply to join the programme, email foodsave@thesra.org
