My name is Lisa Coelho and I work for the City of Sunnyvale, CA. Were currently in the process of implementing an food scraps collection program with local commercial organizations, including restaurants, coffee houses, and nursing homes. We want to ensure our program is successful, so were reaching out to other cities and groups running food scraps collection programs to ask them a few questions about their experiences.
I am looking looking for the information such as:
What containers do you use for collecting food scraps?
Does the waste hauler collect the food scraps from inside the restaurant or only from a bin outside? If outside, who collects it from inside and takes it outside? How often?
What would you say are the main difficulties in collecting food scraps?
We will be working with chefs, prep cooks, bussers/waiters, dishwashers, and caterers. What are some of the issues they employees have reported in participating in the program ? Have you been able to help employees overcome those issues (if there are any), and if so, how ?
What are the benefits of participating in this program? What advice could you offer that would get people to participate, or strategies that helped your program be successful?
Please feel free to contact me by email of phone as well!
Thank you!
Lisa Coelho
Zero Waste Program Assistant
City of Sunnyvale
United States
Barriers and Benefits for Restaurant Organics Collection
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Hi Lisa
Kai to compost is a restaurant food scraps collection program operating in Wellington New Zealand It was originally run by the local council but now that it is more established it is run by a private company. You can find the details here https://www.envirowaste.co.nz/index.php?page=kai-to-compost
Which will answer some of your questions .
Cheers
Jenny
Note kai means food in Maori
Jenny Marshall
Sector Group Coordinator
WasteMINZ
New Zealand
Hi Lisa,
I'm a bit late replying, but perhaps this may be on interest to you. The University of Alberta worked closely with food vendors and various other stakeholders using CBSM to co-create options for food scraps collection. It was a pretty hands-on approach, offering technical assistance to the vendors to look at their space, pick containers that fit, as well as starting a Green Spaces certification program to encourage waste reduction and diversion. Some of the methodology used is in this presentation as well as before/after photos:
https://conference.recycle.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/BelindaLi-JessieKwasny.pdf
The HUB Mall examples are probably most applicable. Hope this helps!
Belinda
Belinda Li
Project Engineer
Tetra Tech
Canada