Better World: Zero to landfill

Running a cafe and making food from scratch every day from fresh ingredients can mean a number of waste issues rear their ugly wasteful heads on a daily basis and we work hard to tackle the challenge to fulfil our ‘zero to landfill’ commitment.

So from the start, we design our menu so that ingredients can be used in multiple dishes keeping a keen eye on ordering levels and portion size to check we do all we can to ensure nothing is left on the plate or on the shelf and when it is – we make sure it gets dealt with properly.

Any fit for purpose sandwiches, salads and cakes from our Bristol cafes are donated to FareShare South West to redistribute to those in need in the local community (we even bought them a bike to help them along their way). This leaves all the rest of the gubbins and coffee grinds to either be recycled in the usual way or in the case of the Bristol cafes converted to biomethane energy by the innovative folk at Geneco – the multi-award winning recycling and renewable energy company. This green gas created by their anaerobic digestion plant then powers a truck to come and collect the food waste again – how’s that for a tidy tale. It can also be used to make fertiliser – so maybe one day we can even start growing the food too!

And the rest of the stuff… well, plastic, glass and paper take the well-worn route the recycling bin and that means there is very little left for those pesky black bins bags we are extremely proud to say. So just as you guys separate your food waste, plastics and bottles and home – rest assured we do the same.

We are always looking for new initiatives to continue to reduce our waste – straws and takeaway cups are in our sights…

Update, 26 April 2018 – Since this blog was written we have taken the decision to ban single use coffee cups.