Introduction to Zero Waste - Essay Sample

Introduction

Ever since a young age, I used to love and enjoy life outdoors. The fresh air in the suburbs encompassed with the cool afternoon breeze was a sight that I always held with such awe since childhood. This, therefore, made me endeavor to be an environmental conservationist in the future when I was of age and make a significant impact on the various conservation efforts that other environmentalists have taken up (Inglezakis et al., 2012). In my junior and high school study years, I got actively engaged in various environmental campaigns and street cleaning activities that made me feel that I was making an impact on society. This tender connection to my conservationist side largely contributed to the choice of my master thesis area of choice which gave me an opportunity to apply the skills that I have gained in class to practical, real-world problems while making the planet more habitable by reducing the amount of toxic waste that is being released continuously into our environment thereby endangering the biodiversity and also making the place less livable. By curbing the toxicity that is dumped carelessly every day, we will be moving a step closer towards achieving a green planet.

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Somebody asked the question, could zero waste restaurants be the future of modern dining? First and foremost, the most important thing is to understand the meaning of a zero-waste restaurant. It is a common occurrence that even in our homes, as we try and prepare meals, there is a certain proportion that often goes into waste either during the food preparation process or as meal leftovers (Reichenbach, 2017). By zero waste restaurants, environmental conservationists are trying to come up with measures that will help to curb the amount of waste that is released continuously into the environment in their operational activities. By zero waste, the hotel industry could come up with measures and means that will see to it that very little or no waste at all is released into the environment. Home meals are relatively small and are prepared for a definite number of people. Now, take into consideration a restaurant serving approximately a thousand people in a day. There are all assortments of meals that are prepared in the day and not all f these food ends up being consumed. This, therefore, goes to show that the amount of waste that could get generated from these restaurants could be quite high and it is, therefore, necessary to implement measures that could help curb this wastage. Various approaches have been brought forward by hotel managers and operators on how to transform their joints into zero waste operational enterprises, but the measures may vary from one enterprise to another depending on the kind of food and services they offer. Zero waste implementation in restaurant operations is an important measure that will significantly contribute to reducing environmental pollution among other vices that have been practiced by the hotel industry in regards to waste management and disposal.

Honu Hawaiian BBQ Project Description

Bulgaria is a country that has been largely affected by environmental pollution in various sectors. The waste disposal mechanisms in the region are underdeveloped, and with the continuous industrial development sweeping across globally, it is only becoming more difficult for business operators to manage the waste they are generating daily. In the city of Sofia for instance, in the last two years, a massive surge in population has led to an increased demand for basic services such as food and housing (Omrane, 2013). This has therefore seen an increase in the amount of waste released into the environment increase abruptly thereby increasing the need to come up with measures to combat the vice.

Honu Hawaiian BBQ is a restaurant that is located at Sofia in Bulgaria. Hawaiian BBQ initially started as a small joint operation that was mainly involved in the distribution of fast foods and eventually grew into a five-star restaurant that currently serves close to about one thousand clients in a day. The transformation of the fast food joint to a five-star operational restaurant has witnessed significant changes in the execution of the restaurant's activities. Upon connecting with the manager, he expressed his desire to transform the operation into a Zero waste management enterprise which therefore requires a different approach to the running of activities to ensure that this goal is achieved (Reichenbach, 2017). For zero waste operation to get implemented in the running of the Honu Hawaiian BBQ, it is necessary to understand how the restaurant operates from the start to the waste products that the hotel has by the end of the day. By following this, we will be able to no implement measures that will enable us to reduce or utilize any amount of waste that the hotel has trouble disposing of.

Methodology and Literature Review

To transform the Honu Hawaiian BBQ restaurant into a zero-waste operation enterprise, it is necessary to look into various operational activities that the restaurant is involved in. for instance, the statistical figures on the average number of customers that visit the hotel could be necessary. This will enable us to approximate the amount of food that the restaurant ought to prepare in a given business operation day. From the hotel records, we were able to establish that, on a normal business day, the restaurant was ready to serve about five hundred individuals who showed preference over the common delicacies served such as the; banitsa, snow white salad, and other common Bulgarian dishes. With these statistics available, it was evident that in order to reduce the amount of waste that is incurred resulting from meals that are not purchased by any client, the restaurant could try and increase the number of local delicacies and cut on other dishes such as the sushi and baked beans which were observed not to be ordered frequently by the locals visiting the restaurant. These food statistics would be of paramount importance in determining the strengths of the hotel in terms of their dishes. By observing the frequency through which a particular meal is purchased by the customers, the management would be able to make the necessary changes in their menu.

Apart from the food statistics, another important aspect that could be incorporated in the restaurant's operations in the zero-waste program is the left-over policy that the institution operates by. In most regions, it is a state requirement that any food that is not sold on the day of preparation gets discarded and should not be sold to the clients on the next day. Such policies are a key contributing factor towards the waste factor whereby all the leftovers have to be disposed of contributing to the already present garbage. Under such operational rules, the restaurant should try to implement a price variation depending on the time variance. As the end of a business day comes closer, certain meals could be sold at a relatively lower price which could help lure customers into purchasing these meals. By so doing, it will be possible to control the amount of waste food given that, provided a sizeable customer base agrees to buy the meals then disposal will not be a necessary measure.

Still on the issue of curbing waste that is incurred in form of food material, having a worker-friendly environment could also be another way to approach the waste problem at hand. The management could come up with a strategy that will enable the workers to take home any extra food that is not sold at the end of a business day (Un-Habitat, 2010). The restaurant employs close to one hundred individuals both directly and indirectly. Such a huge number could come in hand in dealing with the waste problem at hand. By allowing the workers to take home food at the end of the day, this could serve as an incentive that would significantly contribute to the worker's motivation thereby contributing towards the overall business performance

The above strategies are however all aimed at dealing with the waste food situation but don't take into account the production means. For instance, in the food preparation process, the restaurant was still using open stoves to prepare some meals such as grilled chicken and other roast food. Most customers with various health conditions were observed not to purchase meals prepared in this way claiming that they had negative health effects on them. This consequently led to the registration of low sales on other meals prepared in such ways thus contributing to the overall waste volumes recorded. The method of preparation of various dishes was also observed to be a factor that contributed to the purchase trends observed among the clients (Wilson, 2007; Moloney & Doolan, 2016). By adopting health and sanitized food preparation methods, it would be possible to improve the waste combating measures that the restaurant is working towards achieving.

Execution Strategy and Plan of Action

To achieve the above-outlined strategies, it is necessary to come up with an execution strategy that will see to it that the measures put in place are observed. To begin with, workers motivation is important for the realization of the zero-waste operation of the Honu Hawaiian BBQ restaurant. By ensuring that the workers are well adjusted towards the zero-waste operational principle, it is necessary to ensure that they understand the importance of the reduced waste measures that the restaurant management is trying to implement. The workers are among the most important individuals to oversee that the zero-waste prospects are met (Rajendran, Bjork, & Taherzadeh, 2013). An educational program could be instituted to teach the staff on why it is necessary to curb the amount of waste that is being released out into the environment daily. Having them understand the importance of the exercise, then it would be easier to put into place any other measures that follow.

The Honu Hawaiian BBQ restaurant is not only interested in making their business a zero-waste enterprise but is also interested in expanding this conservational approach to other businesses out there in the attempt to curb environmental pollution in Sofia and the whole of Bulgaria as well. To achieve this, partnering with other restaurant operators in the region could largely help in creation a domino-like effect in the waste management campaign. Some other restaurant operators have also shown their interest in the conservative endeavor and are more willing to participate in waste management activity (Song, Li & Zeng, 2015). The manager at delicious cuisines, for instance, was quick to point out that, the hotel industry is one that is largely affected by the environmental serenity. He argued that hotels located in environmentally appealing surroundings were better suited for business operations than those that were not.

The Honu Hawaiian BBQ management, therefore, ought to consider partnering up with such similar-minded restaurants in the city of Sofia and come up with strategies that will be mutually beneficial for the enterprises. For instance, by coming together, the restaurants could start a waste recycling program where the garbage could get sorted out depending on the material composition and other properties and then recycled or processed into the most suitable intermediate product (Scheinberg & Mol, 2010). Take for example waste fish remains, upon thorough heating and grinding, the remains are usually added with other supplements and utilized as an animal feed. Collecting all these remains from various hotel businesses in different parts of Sofia and Bulgaria at large could provide enough raw materials to start off the animal feed venture which c...