Looking back at a year well wasted

After a Queensland holiday, I reckon its time to put down the bottle and make a new blog post. To my 3 subscribers, sorry for the neglect, and here goes...

From August until about just 2 weeks ago, I have been working in corporate catering around Melbourne. Banquet halls and convention centers, that kind thing. It's an easy job that pays well, but I think it's about time I fessed up to all the amount of food and water I was asked to waste at my job.

The gigs that I've worked at usually caters food and drinks for parties from 500 to 1000 people. A rough ballpark estimate of the amount of food that goes to waste would approximately be 10%. It is pretty standard in the catering industry to prep 110% of food that is required, and the cost for the extra 10% is always factored into the expense budget. So for a dinner party for 1000 people, there could be up to 100 extra uneaten entres, mains and desserts trashed at the end of the night.

Some venues will set aside the extra food for staff meals, some ask that all the extras to be tipped straight into the bin. There is even an instance where it was the company policy to chuck out half the extra food as waste and save the other half for staff meals and charge them $5 per plate. Douche bags! This extra food is included in what the client has paid for, thus anything they charge the staff is all profit for the venue. Double charging for the same plate of food, 3 hours later, disgraceful. Back to the point, all extra food gets dumped in the bin and wheeled away to land fill. Landfill is the solution to everything.

In my opinion, the spare food can easily be handled in a manner such that it can be redistributed to local soup kitchens. I know of hotels around the world that cooperate with local shelters to "replate" leftovers. But that is not the case in Melbourne due to the fear of litigation. The bum who got food poisoning and sued the hotels got a huge payday pretty much ruined it for the other homeless people that could really use a free feed.

If you ask me, it's as easy as putting the spare food back into the walk in fridges before it is picked up and transported to the shelters. But most venues I've worked at don't even bother.

Liquids go to waste as well. The same venue that charges staff for leftovers also has a policy to not store any opened bottles of beverages. In other words, half drunken bottles of wine and mineral water goes straight down the tubes at the end of the night. For a country that has experienced 10 years of drought, that's incredibly wasteful. Wines can be sold by the glass, it doesn't need to go down the sink. Leftover bottled water can be served instead of tap water the next day. Simple as that.

It is also industry standard to melt down left over ice in the ice wells behind the bar, it's a health and safety thing... something to do with bacteria, mildew, that kind of business. Makes sense to leave ice wells dry overnight, but it is also an incredible waste of water. In a country that has a serious shortage of fresh water, instead of pouring hot water into the wells to melt the ice, I feel it would be much better if the ice was scooped and dumped into men's urinal stalls at the end of the night. Requires a bit more labour, but much more environmentally friendly.

I'm sure most people have come across sustainability initiatives by local governments or other NGO's that asks people to conserve food, water and energy at home. Small business understand this concept of yield management and limit any wastage because for the slimmer margins and tighter operating budgets. But, for those large hotels and event spaces who cater large parties, 10% waste is unsubstantial to them. And since it's Christmas, it needs to be asked whether Baby Jesus would waste all this food and water.  Baby Jesus wouldn't, and we shouldn't make him cry.

All this wastage is not unique to Melbourne venues. This is happening everyday and every night at every hotel and convention center around the world. Just think of how much is wasted. Think about all the extra food that doesn't need to be grown, processed and cooked. No wonder we have sustainability and global warming issues.

The next time you think that you are making a difference with your actions at home, you're not. The big businesses are doing all sorts of environmental damage on a scale that you can't even fathom. And that's just in hospitality. Nothing compared to what the global mining giants are doing.