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The following information is provided
courtesy of The Catering Equipment Suppliers Association.
Understanding
Waste Management
Kitchen
waste has a double hit on kitchen costs. Food not sold and
thrown away immediately hits the bottom line of profit, but the
second hit is the charge of removal for both kitchen waste and
plate waste. Most local authorities will charge for both
packaging and food waste removal and waste cooking oil often
carries a removal and recycling cost from specialist oil
recycling companies.
There is not
uniformity across the UK with waste disposal regulations and
different local authorities and water companies have conflicting
policies. But one aspect of food waste management common to all
is that food waste cannot go for animal feed as it once did.
While not
always illegal, tipping old cooking oil into the sewerage system
is a serious pollution and if it caused a mains drain blockage
leading from a kitchen, the restaurant could be charged for
cleaning and repairs to the drain by the local authority. Some
water authorities take a harder view than others on it. It is a
feature of most local authority building regulations for
commercial food premises that a grease separation system be
fitted in all new or refurbished kitchens, but the legislation
is not retrospective.
While
plastic sacks are adequate for non-food waste in small premises,
no waste food should ever be stored in plastic sacks which
vermin can easily tear open. The most practical means of holding
all waste not destined for recycling are heavy-duty wheelie bins
with lids that are too heavy for vermin, feral cats, dogs and
foxes to lift. Wheelie bins come in a range of sizes and can be
bought outright, leased or loaned as part of a collection
scheme.
Since waste
collection is charged by the wheelie bin it makes economic sense
for premises which produce a lot waste to invest in a waste
compactor. Typically, the wheelie bin is pushed up against the
compactor and bulky items such as packaging waste will compress
to a quarter of the space. The cost of buying a compactor can
easily be recouped by a busy operation in under a year.
While
commercial wheelie bins are efficient in holding waste, they can
be unsightly and smelly. Screening hides the view, but not the
smells in summer. One way to contain both sight and smell is to
invest in a dedicated walk-in cold-room for food waste with a
constant temperature of 8 deg C.
Blocked
drains in kitchen premises caused by food waste and fats that
wash off dirty plates can be a very expensive service call and
can be avoided through fitting a fat separation unit or grease
trap to the water outflow system.
A grease
trap works by slowing down the flow of warm or hot greasy water
coming out of a dishwasher and allowing it to cool. As the water
cools, the grease and oil separate and float to the top of the
grease trap. The cooler water containing less grease continues
to flow down the pipe to the sewer. The grease is trapped by
baffles, which cover the inlet and outlet of the tank,
preventing grease from flowing out of the trap. The baffles are
regularly removed for cleaning and the grease put into general
waste.
Different
local authorities have different views on the siting of a grease
trap. Some say it must be outside of the kitchen, other are
happy for it to be in the kitchen. Where a grease trap is taking
water from a dishwashing system, it has to be sited sufficiently
far away from the dishwasher to allow the emulsified fat to cool
and split out from the water. A popular way of reducing the
amount of food waste going into wheelie bins is to fit a waste
disposal unit. Food waste is pulverised and discharged into the
sewerage system, reducing the cost of waste management.
Some local
authorities will not allow food waste that has been pulverised
in an under-sink waste disposal unit to be discharged into the
sewers and the normal way of complying with this regulation is
through a dewatering system. This quite simply separates out the
water from suspended solids. The water goes into the drains and
the slurry disposed of through other means.
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