10 Zero Waste Restaurant Ideas You Must Try Right Now

Zero waste is a growing trend in the culinary industry as many customers are interested in lowering their carbon footprint. Because restaurants serve a large number of people, they end up producing a lot of waste that not only hurts the environment but also their profit.

Do you know how much waste you produce daily and monthly? If you implement the zero-waste restaurant ideas mentioned in this article you will attract more customers and make more money in the long term.

Why you should take steps to become a no-waste restaurant

Becoming a fully zero-waste restaurant can be a long process, but reducing even a small part of your waste can be beneficial. Here are the benefits you will enjoy if you start now:

• Help the environment: by making small chances, you can do your part to fight the negative effects of food waste;
• Boost profitability: by minimizing waste, reusing and repurposing materials, you cut costs and increase your profit margin;
• It can be an efficient marketing tool: clients expect more from a restaurant than just great food. Environmentally conscious diners are looking especially for sustainable businesses that share their values. If you can win them over, you will get loyal customers who won’t hesitate to recommend your place online and to their friends.

Read more: 10 Must-Have Marketing Tools for Restaurants to Take Advantage of

What is a zero-waste restaurant?

To be certified as a zero-waste restaurant you need to prove that you have diverted 90% of the waste your produce from the landfill in the last year.

It requires implementing a variety of zero-waste restaurant ideas such as reducing, reusing, recycling, and composting. The end goal is to run a profitable restaurant that doesn’t negatively impact the environment.

Read more: How to Make a Restaurant Environmentally Friendly: 5 Tips & Secrets

10 zero-waste restaurant ideas to try

To become a zero-waste restaurant, you need to slowly incorporate sustainable practices into your operations. With time, it will become a habit that is easy to uphold.

Start your no-waste journey with these zero-waste restaurant ideas:

1. Conduct a waste audit

A waste audit will help you identify the types and quantities of waste you produce during a given time frame. You can hire a specialized team to do so or do it yourself if you want to save money.

The key is to collect all the trash, sort it and weigh it. This way, you can identify new ways to recycle, products that could have been reused, and ingredients that should have been composted.

2. Make your menu smaller

A big menu is the first cause of food waste. When you have a lot of menu items, you also have a lot of ingredients that go bad because they didn’t get used. Furthermore, clients often get choice paralysis when faced with a huge menu and they won’t trust you will deliver quality dishes.

Instead, limit yourself to a small menu full of star dishes that will impress every customer. If you want to offer clients something extra, you can allow them to customize their dishes with sizes and toppings.

Read more: Why Restaurants with Small Menus Are More Successful [+ Template]

You can do so using the free menu creator from GloriaFood. Not only do you allow customers to create their perfect dish, but you also increase profit because toppings have a high-profit margin.

Read more: How to Improve Your Restaurant Menu with Choices and Add-ons

3. Reduce portion sizes

Food waste is also generated by clients who can not finish their portions. Have you noticed that the plates that return to the kitchen still have a large quantity of food on them? Then it may be a great idea to reduce portion sizes.

In doing so, you also increase profit per client because you use fewer ingredients to prepare a single dish. What’s more, you can always offer different sizes for each menu item as suggested above for clients who have a bigger appetite.

Read more: How to Reduce Food Waste in Restaurants: 7 Tips & Tricks

4. Use reusable food containers

Zero-waste restaurant ideas are not limited to food waste, they expand to all areas of your business. Because you are constantly working with ingredients, you need a way to properly store them. If you want to be environmentally friendly, let go of single-use containers that you throw away after each use.

Instead, opt for reusable food containers such as glass and stainless steel, that can be washed and used indefinitely. What’s more, you may also find an inventory management system useful so you can be aware when you need to order more ingredients and be alerted when they are reaching their expiration date.

Read more: 7 Effective Restaurant Inventory Management Tips for 2024

5. Source seasonal ingredients locally

Your zero-waste restaurant’s journey starts with your suppliers. Getting ingredients shipped from far away places not only costs a lot but also contributes to pollution.

Therefore, the more earth-conscious way of running a restaurant is to find local vendors that are also working towards being zero-waste and can deliver your ingredients in reusable packages such as wooden crates.

Moreover, try to include as many seasonal ingredients as possible as they are considerably cheaper than the off-season ones that need to be imported. The fresh taste will surely be noticed by clients who will appreciate your efforts.

Read more: How to Capitalize on Restaurant Seasonality to Increase Profits

6. Use recyclable takeaway containers

You can only serve a limited number of people at your restaurant. If you want to increase your sales, you need to allow people to order your delicious dishes online.

You can use the free online ordering system from GloriaFood to streamline your ordering process and make it easy for people to place an order directly on your website.

One of the more visible zero-waste restaurant ideas for your clients is to use recyclable or compostable takeaway containers. This shows customers you are serious about your no-waste efforts and encourages them to come back.

Read more: Advantages of Eco-Friendly Packaging for Your Restaurant & How to Get Started

7. Cook with all parts of an ingredient

Buying a whole animal and only cooking a few parts of it is not only incredibly wasteful, but it is also not cost-effective. You are practically throwing away money. That’s why these concepts are now very popular: nose-to-tail and root-to-flower cooking.

Here are a few ways you can use every part of an ingredient:

• Use shells from crabs or shrimps to make stock and add flavor to your dishes;
• Use peels for stocks or as décor pieces if you fry them up and flavor them with some condiments;
• Use the forgotten parts of the greens to make sauces such as parsley stem-flavored olive oil;
• Ferment excess ingredients instead of letting them go bad.

8. Start composting

Even if you do your best to use a lot of your ingredients, some parts are just not eatable. But that doesn’t mean they should go in the trash. One of the most popular zero-waste restaurant ideas is to install compost collecting bins at your restaurant.

You can train your team and hang up flyers above the bin with what ingredients can be composted:

• Paper towels and bags
• Cardboard
• Eggshells
• Natural fibers such as cotton
• Vegetable peelings and uncooked fruit
• Tea leaves and coffee grounds

Afterward, you can find a business that will collect your compost or even talk with your local suppliers and see if they would be interested in using it to fertilize their produce.

9. Install separated recycling bins

One of the most important zero-waste restaurant ideas is to collect separately so you can properly recycle. If you have all your waste in one bin, it will be impossible to sort and it will inevitably end in the landfill.

You will need to buy separate bins, label them, and train your employees to use them:

• Glass bin
• Plastic bin
• Cans bin
• Trash bin

Don’t forget to also draw up a contract with recycling companies so they can pick up your sorted recyclables. Having separate bins will also allow you to monitor how much waste you are still producing.

Read more: Restaurant recycling: 10 easy steps to help the environment and get more clients

10. Donate unused food

While you may cook some dishes to order, some dishes and ingredients have to be prepared before to make the workflow more efficient. For example, soups or pizza dough. And what do you do if those don’t sell out by the end of the day?

Here are our tips to not let unused food go to waste:

• Add discount boxes at the end of the day: create meal bundles with the leftover dishes and sell them at a smaller price at the end of the day. With the menu creator from GloriaFood, it is easy to add new menu items as many times as you want, free of charge;
• Donate unused food: you can collaborate with local charities and give your leftover food to less fortunate people.

Final words

Even if you are not prepared yet to make the effort to get zero-waste certified, all the zero-waste restaurant ideas mentioned above will help improve your business. By reducing your trash, you increase revenue and attract customers who are passionate about protecting the environment.