Zero Waste Is The Right Kind Of Food Mystery

As of October 2018, restaurants and food businesses in Austin, Texas are forbidden from throwing out food waste. The city will be offering guidance and training on how operators can comply with this new restriction. After a study, the city found that 37% of its waste sent to landfills could have been composted. In response, the city has set a goal: to reach zero waste by the year 2040.

Zero waste is a concept that has been steadily gaining popularity for almost two decades. The approach aims to mimic the cycles of the natural world: growth, death, and growth from dead matter back into life, turning the cycle again.

Why is food’s push for zero waste becoming increasingly strong? As the food community evolves, and as ecological concerns deepen as the condition of the earth steadily worsens, people have realized that they can do their part to cultivate a positive food philosophy and help the planet by minimizing waste. Worldwide, more than 1.3 billion tons of food waste are produced per year in urban areas alone.

Zero waste is a concept hard to define precisely. There is no universal definition. There is no entity that gives out seals or official declarations that a food producer is zero waste. Zero waste is an amorphous goal rather than a quantifiable target. A broad definition of “zero waste” is that the phrase denotes food systems that result in no waste being destroyed or dropped into the earth’s land or waters.

The goals of zero waste food operations are generally big picture. If restaurant and food business owners adopt zero waste policies, our food system will become more sustainable. Additionally, the business of food would be better for the environment. The kind of intensive, conscious approach that zero waste requires can also trickle down and out to other areas of food production. Zero waste requires the kind of rigor and discipline that make for good, safe food.

There are two major components to zero waste food systems: recycling and reusing.

Recycling refers to ensuring that certain materials are kept in the loop of disposal, remaking, use, disposal, remaking, and so on. Restaurant and food business owners can not only recycle plastic cups, paper plates, liquor bottles, cardboard boxes vegetables come in, and a host of other materials.

Reuse refers more to ensuring that food waste products are used to the extent possible. Fish bones can be used to make stock. Leftover onion skins and other vegetable scraps can be burnt to make a flavourful ash, or turned to syrup and added to drinks. Cooks who defrost frozen goods in water (to expedite defrosting) can even use that leftover water to feed plants. Reuse can get creative.

Another key component, somewhere between reuse and recycling, is generally composting.

Zero waste does not stop here for some restaurant and food business owners. Some choose to define zero waste more strictly. They may address the straws, the air conditioning systems, the insulation, and put compost bins under each cooks station. In an effort to keep food systems efficient and safe, some are willing to go an extra mile or two — all in the name of something that doesn’t generally increase profitability, but planetary health.

QWerks aims to improve the quality systems of food producers around the world. Find out more about QWerks.