The Consultant - Q1 2009 - (Page 49) Waste Management Initiatives in Europe he integration of food waste management systems into foodservice kitchen schemes varies from country to country within Europe, depending on social and legislative factors. It can even vary from one city to the next; for example basic kitchen equipment such as in-sink grinder-type disposers are widely used in some European countries but banned in others. Much depends on the attitude of water authorities and their view on the impact of waste-waster slurries on mains drainage. Waste classification also has a significant local dimension. For example, serious problems with foot & mouth disease earlier in the decade led the UK government to introduce Animal By-Products Regulations, which stipulate that any food waste which has been in contact with meat must be disposed of to landfill or incineration. Further legislation, which came into effect at the end of October 2007, compounded the issue by requiring that all appropriate food waste should be pretreated prior to disposal to landfill. Strict storage and labelling rules apply to certain waste foods that cannot go to landfill, with documented collection from site handled by licensed carriers with approved premises. At the same time, the UK Government is committed, like its neighbours on the Continent, to European Union environmental legislation such as the Landfill Directive. This decrees a series of staged targets between 2010 and 2020 for reducing the amount of biodegradable municipal waste sent to landfill and a progressive switchover – at least 40 percent by 2010 – to some form of recycling. The big issue for foodservice operators is still that of reducing the amount of waste generated in the first place. For example, simpler transit packaging and staff training can help. But attention has also been shifting to ways of turning the waste into something useful through processes such as composting, anaerobic digestion, physico-chemical and thermal treatments, bio-gas conversion or recycling into an increasingly wide range of products, from paper and packaging to furniture and metal goods. The alternative for foodservice businesses T is annually increasing landfill taxes and removal charges, plus penalties for non-compliance. The end-result is that any organization which generates food waste – particularly large meal producers such as hotels and function/entertainment venues, hospitals, prisons and large educational establishments – has a major waste disposal headache. There is, therefore, a need for greater innovation in planning foodservice installations, both in terms of systems and training. Increasingly, European diners are expected to separate tray waste themselves as at this Spanish staff cafeteria. Conversion to energy Larger European businesses are also becoming aware of the impact, on both shareholders and consumers, of more progressive waste management policies. The 500-store Migros chain of supermarkets in Switzerland, many of which incorporate popular restaurants and snack facilities as well as large food sections, pioneered a scheme in Zurich using specialist contractors to collect waste such as restaurant waste and out-of-date food and transfer it to an anaerobic digestion (AD) facility. AD is essentially the treatment of organic material in the absence of oxygen, resulting in microbial degradation which produces gas and material suitable for use as fertiliser. First Quarter 2009 49
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