REFOOD, A food waste recycling specialist has won its first contract in the South West of England. Restaurant Poolside Indulgence has demonstrated its commitment to improving the environment by partnering with ReFood to recycle all of the generated food waste.
The Penzance-based restaurant is renowned for having a family friendly atmosphere. It produces three separate covers a day and wanted to demonstrate environmental best practice, by finding a more sustainable solution for the food waste generated.
While measures to prevent food waste had already been implemented in its kitchens, an element of waste food, such as peelings and skins was inevitable. Previously this waste was treated as general waste, eventually ending up in landfill. Now the restaurant has been able to see its unavoidable food waste utilised as a valuable resource.
Rebecca Farrington, restaurant owner, said: “We source as many of our ingredients as possible from local suppliers, and buy fair trade and organic when we can. We are proud to serve Origin organic coffee, local juices and cider, as well as locally caught seafood and we see the proper disposal of our food waste as the next logical step to enhancing our green credentials. We do not generate vast amounts of food waste, but we are now one of the first restaurants in Penzance that is capable of recycling 100 per cent of our waste.
“We’ve always been proactive in our approach to sustainability and although we have only recently started working with ReFood the partnership has already enabled us to achieve our ultimate goal of being a zero waste to landfill restaurant. Another key factor in us reaching this goal has been communicating the benefits of food waste recycling to our customers and the reaction has been superb. We look forward to continuing our partnership work to build on our environmental success.
“In practice, food waste recycling is incredibly simple for the catering team to operate. Small kitchen caddies are placed around the food preparation areas, enabling chefs to segregate the waste as it is produced. These are then emptied into larger bins, into which other food waste, such as plate scrapings, coffee grinds and tea leaves can be added. The bins are then collected by ReFood and using the most advanced anaerobic digestion technology, the waste is turned into renewable energy and organic digestate, a nutrient rich fertiliser that can go back on the land.”
Simon Wellaway, regional commercial manager at ReFood, said: “We’re delighted to be working with Poolside Indulgence and to help them further their environmental drive by turning food waste into green energy. We can apply our experience and expertise to ensure that dealing with food waste in the right way has a positive commercial impact as well as delivering on environmental promises. Food waste is a valuable resource and we applaud the efforts of restaurants like Poolside Indulgence in ensuring that it does not end up in landfill.
“The South West of England is facing a growing food waste issue. To help overcome the problems, ReFood are starting to work closely with a number of businesses in the area as more companies realise the environmental and financial benefits that can be achieved through food waste recycling.”
