The hospitality sector is a significant generator of food waste, and included within this sector are hotels, events, and food service, among others. It is estimated that customer-facing businesses, including foodservice, grocery retail, and others, make up approximately 20%, or 18 million tons, of surplus food in the U.S. annually. ¹ Of the surplus food generated by customer-facing business, only 10% is donated or recycled. ¹ This is the opportunity. Let’s talk about hotels.
Hotels are unique because within hospitality and in addition to lodging, they overlap with foodservice and events, both of which are big food waste generators. In addition, we add in the “comfort and stay” element where these spaces are designed for guests to have an extended stay, eat meals within the space, relax, meet, and do all of this on both personal and/or business time. In other words, food can be a big part of the hotel experience.
Wasting food has cost associated with it. For a business, the more efficiently food can be managed, the lower the cost impact is to the business. This means following the EPA Wasted Food Scale guidance to reduce waste on the front end, upcycle or donate as much as possible, then recycle the rest. ² The other “cost” that is often forgotten is the environmental cost of growing, processing, transporting, and preparing the food to have it only go to landfill. The environmental “costs” include water use, fuel and energy consumption, packaging, and overall impact to the climate because of these inputs.
For hotels, and the hospitality industry as a whole, there has been increased awareness of environmental impacts of wasted food over the past decade, and new resources have been developed to help tackle the issue. An example is “Hotel Kitchen,” a resource kit developed through a partnership between the American Hotels and Lodging Association (AHLA) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). ³ The kit is specific to food waste in hotels, and it provides guidance to the various roles in a hotel environment that can have impact on food waste.
How to take action:
- Establish a program that includes goals and accountability for the various stakeholders.
Everyone plays an important role in food waste reduction, and the coordinating of all of these roles determines the success of a program. - Measure and report food not used for its intended purpose or being wasted.
Make sure to track “waste” from all processes, which also might come from separate programs and service providers. Upcycled, donations, recycled, and trash (hopefully not) all together can show opportunities for improvement. - Use data to improve.
Use all data from different dispositions – upcycling, donations, and recycling – to look at improvement opportunities comprehensively. Ordering adjustments, menu changes, creative upcycling of uneaten food, and rightsizing can help reduce food waste overall. Trash waste audit data can show where better recycling execution needs to occur – and recycling data can also help to drive upstream waste reduction.
Did you know?
Denali provides customized food waste recycling service for hotels, including the right collection bin type, locations, and collection schedule to fit a hotel’s needs. Denali will provide recycling data that can then be used by a hotel to identify opportunities to reduce and recycle more.
Did you know?
Denali can collect all food waste, including packaged items, to simplify the process to recycle. The valuable food components are mechanically separated from the packaged material and are converted into compost, which can then be used in gardens or on farms to improve soil health and productivity.
If you are a business or manufacturer that would like to learn more about recycling your food byproducts or other organic waste streams, contact us at Denali. We can help you set up a customized program to fit your service needs, organic waste streams, and provide the best value.
About Denali
Denali is a leading expert and recycler in the U.S. organics recycling industry. In food waste alone, Denali was responsible for managing over 800,000 tons of food waste from retail, foodservice, and industrial food processors in 2023. In recognizing the impact that food waste has on the climate, Denali is committed to working with customers to find innovative, data-driven solutions to reduce waste on the front end. Denali views what others consider “waste” as a valuable resource, manages multiple recycling facilities in the U.S., and has a sizeable fleet to transport organic wastes to a diverse network of recyclers. As a contributor to the circular economy, Denali closes the loop by producing valuable products from recycled organics, including animal feed, biodiesel, compost, tire lubricants, and mulch.