How Pubs & Restaurants Can Improve Waste Management & Capture £Bns in Wasted Revenue

You don’t need telling again - pandemic crisis, lockdown losses, fire and brimstone.

‘Doom-scrolling’ worrying news stories will only put you in a negative mindset. Instead see the opportunity of what’s in your control to increase margin. Before lockdowns a waste management crisis was already costing pubs, bars, cafes.

Bad Waste Management Costs Billions

According to The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals:

“Food waste from the hospitality and food service sector makes up 12% of the total UK food waste and almost three quarters was estimated to be wasted food with a value of over £3.2billion in 2018.”
Page 29: UK progress against Courtauld 2025 targets and UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3

We’ll give you a moment to pick up your jaw from your lap.

Just think how many fewer doom and gloom hospitality apocalypse headlines we’d be reading had those £3.2billion gone towards overheads and growth, instead of in the kitchen bins.

Stop worrying about the things you can’t control and make a plan to start affecting factors like waste prevention that are absolutely on you.

Make A Waste Management Plan & Stick to It

For those getting ready to start filling the cash registers again in 2021/2022 here’s our advice for how pubs & restaurants can start recapturing billions in wasted revenue.

Your waste prevention plan should include:

1. Hiring
2. Goal setting
3. Training
4. Tracking
5. Analysis & evaluation

...

1. Hiring (for waste prevention)

Good waste management habits are built up over time and trickle down into teams from responsible managers. Hire managers who can show a track record of waste prevention and have them pass the habits down the chain. 

Don’t be afraid to give inexperienced managers a chance, but train them on waste management and let them know they can progress in their role by showing waste prevention progress.

2. Goal Setting (across each team)‍

Once you have reliable managers in key positions ready to set the example, have them define and show you waste prevention goals that include:

• Portion targets (don’t be tight to customers though!)
• Menu efficiency (to avoid waste stock & leftovers)
• Inventory check frequency (vs waste) 
• Purchasing documentation review frequency (to steer decision-making)
• On-shift and end of shift documentation targets (for recording spillages, breakages, line cleaning waste etc)
  

Once you have your goals..

3. Training (in all areas, not just waste prevention!)

We stress this advice repeatedly in our content; look after your team and your team looks after you:

• Train new-starters on waste prevention processes relevant to their area from day one and document their training and refresher training.
  

• Train teams in other areas too. A multi-skilled team creates independence and agility. Independent, agile team members make fewer errors, feel more job satisfaction and are more likely to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s of waste prevention.

4. Tracking

Strong waste management is essential to profit monitoring. Make your data work for you by finding smart ways of tracking waste.
Pen and paper is your worst enemy because it’s time consuming, boring, manual and easy to forget. Instead, digitize your paper trail.

We’ve got you covered for this one; get the Growyze app onto team phones and they’ll be able to do essential waste prevention tasks on their phones, on-the-go, no excuses. You can get 2 months free access If you like it, use it to quickly reduce waste losses and it’ll more than pay for itself.

5. Analysis & evaluation

Waste management is the result of smart decisions - and you don’t make smart waste management decisions without smart data.

Did we already mention? Pen and paper SUCK for waste prevention because scattered figures written on crumpled, stained files make it harder to see a big picture to inform strategy.

We’re not going to lie, Growyze has you covered for this one too. Growyze lets you gather all the data you need to evaluate your waste management progress from the palm of your hand so you can review, assess and decide how to change up waste prevention tactics.

There’s still time to get free access before we fully launch. Download the app, put your waste prevention plan into action and start recovering those pre-covid losses.