Hospitality and Foodservice
WRAP has recently established a programme to work with the Hospitality and Food Service sector to reduce food waste, optimise packaging and increase recycling rates. As part of this programme we will work closely with the sector to support change that delivers both commercial and environmental benefits. This programme is supported by all four UK governments.
A voluntary agreement on food and packaging waste is one of the options to reduce these impacts as demonstrated by other agreements such as the Courtauld Commitment. However, WRAP will agree with industry the best way forward and has already been holding workshops with stakeholders to consider how this could be developed.
Discussion Paper
WRAP has published a Discussion paper on the proposed Voluntary Agreement for the Hospitality and Food Service sector. The purpose of this paper is to:
- Outline proposals for a Voluntary Agreement with the sector to prevent food and packaging waste arising and to recycle more.
- Seek feedback on this proposal. The Voluntary Agreement will then be revised with the aim to launch the agreement in spring 2012.
Scale of the sector
- There are over 260,000 outlets in the UK ranging from cafés to hotels and hospitals.
- 2010 sales of food and drink totalled £41,982 million and it is estimated that 8,165 million meals were served.
For more data see UK Foodservice Industry in 2010 research.
Profit and Cost
Hospitality and Foodservice is traditionally divided into two areas:
Profit: Where the core focus is to provide food and drink. It covers restaurants, hotels and pubs and serves a large number of individual consumers.
WRAP research estimates that in 2009 UK pubs, restaurants, take-aways and hotels produced around 3.4 million tonnes of waste. Of this, 1.5 million tonnes of this was sent to landfill and has an associated carbon impact of around 4 million tonnes of CO2e. WRAP estimates the costs associated with avoidable food waste to be about £724 million.
Cost: Where hospitality sits alongside an organisation to provide a food service, for example schools, hospitals and prisons. It tends to be contracted in by clients e.g. local authorities, NHS, MoD and the prison service, as well as staff canteens in offices and factories.
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