LRA Sponsors Conference Focused on Food, Packaging Waste

Consider how much packaging and food waste is generated each day in your restaurant? Between the prep waste, uneaten meals, glass bottles and used grease, a restaurant generates a huge amount of waste. And the kicker? We have to pay a hefty price to have it hauled off.

“It has always amazed me how costly the waste removal business is,” said Stan Harris, Louisiana Restaurant Association (LRA) president & CEO. “The restaurant pays to have their grease hauled off, which is then recycled into animal feed or converted to bio-diesel.”

In addition to those costs, Harris added that a restaurant also pays to have their bulk waste and recycled corrugated packaging disposed of or reprocessed. As a former restaurateur and consultant, he knows all to well that there are very few restaurants that effectively estimate the cost of total waste removal when they are constructing menus and the amount of waste created.

“We have to become more open to receiving product in reusable containers that can be sanitized,” Harris said. “We have to consider efficient methods for dealing with food waste and accept the fact that it might be time to consider upgrading existing lighting and air conditioning/heating systems to those that use less energy, require less maintenance and provide the same comfort levels at a lower cost.”