Event venues, hotels, fast food chains and industry associations have clubbed together in an attempt to cut food waste and reduce CO2 emissions, packagingeurope.com reports.
Domino’s, Greene King and McDonald’s are amongst the 69 UK businesses that have signed up to the voluntary agreement, which hopes to cut the total amount of food being wasted within the hospitality sector by five per cent cent.
The Hospitality and Food Service Agreement also aims to prevent 230,000 tonnes of carbon from being emitted, while there will also be an emphasis on increasing the amount of packaging being sent off to be recycled. Should the group achieve its goals, re-using materials could cut a further 336,000 tonnes of CO2.
The work doesn’t stop there, though. Agreement co-founders the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DFRA) and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) are trying to get more businesses to sign up. If 25 per cent of British hospitality businesses join the initiative, £76 million could be saved by 2015.
Talking to bighospitality.co.uk, chief executive of Wrap, Dr Liz Goodwin, believes that the new agreement will prevent the equivalent of 100 million meals from being wasted – which in turn will save businesses in the hospitality sector vast amounts of money.
“Tackling food waste brings significant financial and environmental benefits, as already demonstrated through our work on household food waste and within the Courthald Commitment,” Ms Goodwin commented.
“This new agreement shows these household names are committed to stopping this terrible waste of food.”
Permalink
| Leave a comment »