The most important thing that restaurants have to control is costs, and that includes the costs of eliminating food waste. Some restaurants have turned to composting as a way to deal with the huge problem of food waste in the United States but it's a cost-prohibitive measure, at least for the moment. Some areas are looking to turn it around.
Food wastes are actually a very valuable product for composters. Food wastes provide necessary nutrients and nitrogen for compost piles. Compost is then used to create more food, and thus a circle is created. Consumers are interested in these circles of reuse ever since the farm-to-table concept took off. Environmentally-conscious consumers like to know where their food comes from and know that it is sourced locally.
But only a tiny handful of restaurants sort their waste and sell it back to composters. The big problem with that is infrastucture and knowledge. There isn't a good system set up for restaurants to easily give their food waste back to composters or local farmers for reuse. If such a system could be set up, it could drive down the costs of running a restaurant. Gardeners and farmers pay a lot of money and put in a lot of effort to get their fields fertilized every year, especially organic farmers.
If this idea does come to fruition, maybe you won't have to get such a large trash can for your restaurant. You can use compost bins instead!
