Food waste in the office has been a challenging issue for many years now… ever since the office as we know it first appeared! There’s no doubt that in some ways, we’re getting better at dealing with this kind of waste. But we still have a long way to go in recycling, and most importantly, reducing the amount of organic waste we’re producing.
Reducing waste at the source is always the most effective way to deal with food waste, and any kind of rubbish. If we’re able to do so, we end up with far less organic matter to recycle or repurpose in a variety of ways. Here are our top tips for reducing food waste in the office.
Teaching employees
People have to eat, and when people eat, there’s often food scraps left behind. Unfortunately, that means that essentially everyone in your office who consumes a meal or snack while they are at work, contributes to the food waste problem. Therefore, the source is in essence, your entire workforce.
This is why educating your employees on the importance of reducing food waste, should always be step number one. The more they know about why food waste should be eliminated, and the best practices on how to do so, the better off your office will be. There are many ways to educate your employees, including third-party educators, and online courses and programs.
Open communication and reminders
It’s essential that once you have educated your employees on reducing food waste, the message is continually reinforced. This will ensure that your people are continually reminded to take measures to reduce their food waste, along with placing what waste there is, into the supplied organic bins.
Email reminders are effective to an extent, but sustainability meetings and in-person reminders are the best way to keep on top of it. Gamifying the process can help keep people interested… for example, provide rewards for employees who produce the least amount of waste each day, week and month.
Collaborative efforts
Collaboration is key to eliminating waste, because it really does take a team effort. Everyone must do their part, by either planning meals more efficiently, educating and reminding others, and researching new ways to cut down on food waste in the office.
If you and your team aren’t working together, the entire effort may fall down. Food waste won’t be reduced if there are people in your workplace that aren’t making a concerted effort. Therefore, it’s so important to iterate this message to your people regularly… that it must be everyone working together, to get the best outcomes.
Plenty of organic waste bins
While this tip doesn’t contribute to reducing food waste in the office, bins are necessary. If you don’t have adequate organic waste bins, and if your people don’t understand exactly what goes in them, most food waste will probably end up in the standard rubbish bin, and then onto landfills around Sydney and the rest of the country.
Work with cafes and restaurants
There are probably more than a couple of local cafes and restaurants that your staff frequent each lunch time. That means that a large amount of the leftover food that ends up in the bin, along with packaging, likely comes from these places. It could be worth opening a dialogue with these vendors about what to do with food waste, because they may already have a strategy, or an affiliation with a company that handles food waste specifically.
Even if that’s not the case, the vendors may be open to working with you to implement a strategy for reducing waste, including portion control and additional bins. Having these guys on-side will make the process much more effective, because you’ll be working with those who are actually producing the food in the first place.
Link up with local organisations
These days, there are a number of charities and companies that specialise in dealing with food waste. Some even operate exclusively in the corporate niche, removing food waste from vendors and office buildings around the city. Usually, they will take untouched food waste, but many also have programs where scraps are taken as organic waste, and then dealt with by a facility specialising in organic waste.
Some organisations in Sydney that deal with food waste are:
– https://www.fullcycleorganics.com.au/food-waste-removal
– https://www.ozharvest.org/
– https://www.ecoguardians.com.au/services/sydney-food-recycling
Connect with the right waste management company
Every building and facility manager needs to have a great rubbish removal company saved in their phone, and not just for food or organic waste. At Sydney City Rubbish, we work with offices all over the city, removing office junk and all kinds of rubbish. If you’re looking for the best Sydney office junk removal, get in touch with us today.
