How Do You Compost Food Waste?

A variety of delicious meals always comes with some food waste. Whether that be egg shells or someone forgot their leftovers, there’s a way that you can make use out of it. Composting is a common practice that provides many benefits to you and your restaurant. Find out how you compost food waste today to get started.

How to Start Composting Food Scraps

Composting is one of the best restaurant sustainability practices. With the right materials, you can easily get started with composting food waste. Here’s how to use a composting bin:

• Step 1. Build or buy a large-sized bin.


• Step 2. Place your kitchen scraps in a pile.


• Step 3. Throw some leaves or hay on the top to avoid a smell.


• Step 4. Add moisture to the pile when it starts drying out.


• Step 5. Turn the pile every now and again to keep the air flowing through.


• Step 6. Once the pile starts to break down, think about starting a new pile.


• Step 7. Remove the finished compost from the first pile, taking out any large pieces that didn’t break down.


• Step 8. Once the second pile starts to break down, start throwing scraps where the first pile used to be.

Different Types of Composting for Commercial Spaces

Here are some different ways you can start your composting process:

• Use a curbside bin – Check if your city has a green bin program where you can simply use the bin outside to toss your compost items.


• Search for drop-off sites – Typically, community gardens welcome the drop-off of compost to help with their garden spaces. You may also find folks at the local farmers’ market looking to take your compost off your hands.


• Use an app – There’s an app called ShareWaste where you can find someone who is looking for scrap donations for their composting efforts.


• Try vermicomposting – If you have the indoor space for this, you can try vermicomposting where you have a large bin of red worms and you feed them the scraps. In return you get nutrient-rich soil to use in the garden if you grow your own ingredients.

Tips for Composting Food Scraps in a Commercial Kitchen

In addition to having an on-site composting bin, or having it moved to an off-site location, there are other ways you can reduce food waste and get the community involved in your efforts. Here are some tips to get you going:

• Educate and train your staff – If your staff don’t understand how it works or why you’re doing it, then it will be useless. Make sure everyone is aware of what the composting plan is as well as where the scraps will go, what should go into the dumpster and more.


• Use signage – Putting up signs can make it easier to remind everyone to keep up with the program. Hang signs around the trash area so everyone knows what’s to go in the dumpster and what goes into the composting bin.


• Upgrade to eco-friendly products – You can further reduce the waste coming from your commercial space by using compostable takeout containers, plates and even trash bags. Find the products that you can swap out and throw out less.


• Get the community involved – Going green is an uptrending topic and the community will love to hear about your commitment to it. Having a waste management strategy and implementing things such as composting will take your business to new levels and get customers to see your conservation efforts.

What Are the Proper Compost Bin Ingredients?

Now that you have everything set up, you can start using your composting bin. So, what are some compost bin ingredients you can add? Try some of these:

• Eggshells


• Grains, breads and pastas


• Tea leaves and coffee grounds


• Vegetable peels and scraps


• Fruit scraps and pits

What Are the Benefits of Composting Food Scraps?

Though composting doesn’t prevent food waste, it simply creates a better purpose for it than in a dumpster. When composting, the methane gas that’s within the food is eliminated. Composting reduces food waste overall (especially in foodservice and grocery stores), recycles organic materials and helps protect the climate from greenhouse gasses.