Collaborative Strategies for Effective Food Waste Reduction

Food waste is a considerable challenge affecting everyone on a social, environmental and humanitarian level, from governments and corporations to individuals. Understanding what collaborative strategies for reducing food waste exist and exploring how we can implement them is key to achieving this goal and improving how we address it in the future.

What Is Effective Food Waste Reduction?

Food waste equates to 92 billion pounds each year in the United States, totaling 51.7% of waste overall. Estimates point to 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions coming from this wasted food. Beyond the wasted food, all the resources used for growing, processing and transporting it go to waste if the food ends up in a landfill. To reduce food waste on an industrial level, businesses need to:

• Identify sources of food waste: Understanding how much food waste your business produces is critical to lowering it. You can use tools like the Environmental Protection Agency’s wasted food assessment tools to audit food waste.
• Plan and implement food waste reduction strategies: Once you identify where and how much food waste you have and its impacts, you can use technology like smart labels to monitor your food usage. Collaboration with clients and suppliers is also vital for determining supply and demand so you can order as much as you need.
• Donate extra food: For product overflow or surplus, the best option is to work with local charitable organizations to give any excess food to people who need it.
• Create a circular food waste economy: Work with companies that recycle food waste for fertilizer, animal feed, biofuels and more to reduce your carbon footprint and generate revenue from your waste.

Applying these four principles to your waste reduction policies will help you make progress toward operating more sustainably and collaborating with other companies implementing corporate food waste solutions.

Food Waste Management Strategies

You can use various services to manage your facility’s food waste and create a circular economy for by-products that benefit your business.

Baker Commodities offers food waste management strategies and products to recycle as much as possible and reduce local food waste, such as:

• Grease collection equipment: Grease storage is essential for any food-producing business to contain and reduce waste. We sell indoor and outdoor containment tanks, pipe locks, and fresh and used oil containment systems with locks and filtering mechanisms to keep grease separated, safe from theft, and compliant with laws.
• Grease collection services: Regular grease collection is necessary to create a circular economy and safeguard the health of your pipes and tanks. We will reclaim and renew the used oil for clean-burning biofuel, animal feed and lubricants.
• Grease trap pumping: Maintaining pumping and storage systems is integral to their operation. We will collect and remove solid materials, grease and wastewater from your system and conduct any preventive maintenance necessary to keep it in excellent condition, properly dispose of or repurpose grease and abide by all codes and regulations.
• Animal by-product recycling: Regular collection and transport of animal mortalities and by-products is essential for various facilities to remain active, clean and within regulations. Our team will transport this waste to our responsible rendering facilities, where we will repurpose it.

Corporate Food Waste Solutions

The USDA’s Economic Research Service finds that food loss at the retail and consumer levels accounts for between 30% and 40% of all food in the United States. Businesses can prevent these massive losses by applying food waste management strategies to their workflows. These solutions benefit the environment and people by helping businesses remain financially sustainable by creating waste product revenue streams.

Reduce Your Food Waste Today

We are available 24/7, 365 days a year. Whether you want to add equipment to your facility or schedule a service appointment, our experts can help.

Contact the team at Baker Commodities to learn more about our services or how you can implement greener and more profitable waste management strategies.