What are you giving up for Lent? During the lead up to Easter Gaskells Waste is urging businesses to stop wasting food and instead recycle it properly, so it can be turned into a valuable energy source. We are specialists when it comes to recycling food waste. We make it simple, by providing your business with special bins , along with guidance and training and advice on how to reduce the amount of food you’re wasting. Recycling your food waste properly is the ideal solution to helping you increase recycling, reduce your carbon footprint and also reduce your costs.

Some food for thought for businesses when it comes to Food Waste and how not dealing with it could be ‘eating’ away at your profits.

  • Businesses spend 4-5% of their turnover on waste disposal.
  • Every year in the UK more than 500,000 tonnes of food is wasted in restaurants, pubs, hotels and takeways. That’s almost 1 BILLION plates of food.
  • The hospitality industry in the UK spends an estimated £2.5 billion a year on food waste
  • Food waste is heavy. If food waste is mixed with your General Waste it makes your bin heavier which means increased cost each time your bin is emptied.
  • Food waste accounts for over 40% of all waste sent by the UK hospitality sector to landfill sites.
  • Food at landfill sites rots away and gives off methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Each year this adds up to the equivalent of tens of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere.
  • Over a third of all food produced globally is sent to waste.
  • An area larger than China is used to grow food that is never eaten.
  • If food waste was tackled properly, the UK hospitality sector could save £724 million every year.

 

Every day in the UK we throw away *

  • 24,000,000 slices of bread  (equivalent to one million loaves of bread)
  • 920,000 untouched bananas
  • 2,000,000 untouched sausages
  • 600,000 whole uncooked eggs (enough to make 300,000 omelettes!)
  • 800,000 whole apples
  • 1,200,000 million whole tomatoes
  • 3.1 million glasses worth of milk
  • 2.7 million whole carrots

(*according to research by wrap.org.uk )

So how will Gaskells help your business with food waste and recycling?

Gaskells are specialists when it comes to recycling food waste. We’ll provide special bins for your food waste, along with expert guidance and training on what can and can’t go in them. We can also give you advice on how to reduce the amount of food you’re wasting.

By using one of our special food bins and segregating your food waste properly, the cost of your general waste will be reduced.

It could also mean the number of lifts being reduced, which means reduced costs and reduced emissions as our truck will be making less trips to your business.

If you have one or more of our special food bins, your food waste will be collected in our food waste trucks by our experienced crew to be transported to one of our partners anaerobic digestion plants where it will be turned into renewable energy.

Anaerobic Digestion is the process in which food waste is broken down to produce biogas which then or biofertiliser.

food waste anaerobic digestion process

This energy will be used to power homes and businesses, and some ‘food’ for thought on what the food YOU recycle into energy can be the power behind!

  • 47 tea bags could generate enough electricity to power a TV for 80 minutes.
  • 83 recycled banana skins could provide the electricity to power a large screen in a fan zone for long enough to watch both halves of a football match.
  • 6 teabags can create enough electricity to boil the kettle for your morning brew.
  • One ton of coffee grounds (admittedly, a LOT of coffee) BUT when recycled it creates 500kwh of electricity and 500kwh of heat.. that’s enough to drive a BMW i3 1,800 miles!
  • 11 recycled banana skins could power a computer for an hour
  • Fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells, bones and scraps can all be recycled.

For a FREE waste audit and to find out how we can make food recycling simple for you, get in touch.