Monaghan County Council has developed a stunning new video on food waste prevention in the restaurant and catering sectors. The video shows graphically how business people are throwing money down the drain with the levels of food waste being produced.
€200 million is being waste annually by the Irish Catering Sector on food waste.
To reduce your food waste in catering download the Less Food Waste, More Profit Guide, developed by the Stop Food Waste team.
Here’s the video:
The LAPN Events and Locations Working Group met in Portlaoise in January 2011, to discuss its plans for 2011, create synergies, share resources among the group and build upon the successes of 2010.
The group includes: Sharon Carroll, Galway City Council (Sharon.Carroll@galwaycity.ie); Michéal OCoileáin, Kerry County Council (mocoilea@kerrycoco.ie); Pauline McDonagh, Limerick County Council ; Sinead Fox, Cavan County Council (sfox@cavancoco.ie); Mary Stack, Cork County Council (Mary.stack@corkcoco.ie); and Sinéad Ní Mhainnín, Galway County Council (snimhain@GalwayCoCo.ie). The Working Group is faciliated by the Clean Technology Centre, as part of the LAPN.
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In Galway there is a plan to green the Galway Arts Festival in 2011. It is an annual 2 week event that runs in July. There are 6 main venues (these will be the focus of the key LAPN work this year) and the local committee and council are very interested in the proposal. As it is an annual event there is a desire to start this year and then build on the work each year. Some areas of the city have already been active in greening their localities.
In Kerry, there are a number of festivals around the county this year but the main focus would be the Dingle Food Festival in October. The festival includes 50 food serving venues around the town as well as dedicated food markets. Disposable food packaging would be a primary target as well as waste segregation and the development of usable data. Work will also continue in Killarney National Park.
In Limerick and Clare the main work already done relates to Thomond Park and the Cliffs of Moher and reusable and compostable packaging has been a focus for these.
In Cavan, there were many good experiences and findings from the 2010 Green Fleadh – An Fleadh Ghlais. The local authority is hoping for some new ideas in 2011 to build upon them. Committee commitment was of huge importance from the beginning and this commitment was put in action from the start with regard to paper and leaflet use. In addition to waste there was a big push to reduce leaks as well as issuing hippo bags for toilets. Over 60 businesses were involved. A lot of PR was generated – radio, tv, local papers. The launch was a very important kick off and gave the green initiatives a public profile – made them real too. All involved then signed up to a charter (commitment to greening the fleadh) and these business were then given support.
The fleadh was carbon neutral and this was achieved by off setting the carbon impact by planting oak trees.
In Cork The Midelton Food Festival was the focus for 2010. It is well established and though it is just a 1 day festival there is usually about 15,000 people there. 100 stall holders participate and in recent years there has been an environmental awareness campaign with specific adverts about travel to and from the festival. They also have a puppeteer who provides information about waste during the festival. There are environmental messages all over the festival especially at the waste stations and this worked really well in the past.
The main focus areas to date have been:
1. Travel
2. Awareness raising
3. Stall holders
In 2011 further plans relate to new work in Fota Island Wildlife Park. Much of the experiences form the Cliffs of Moher may well be transferable. This has been a great benefit.
In Galway County other activities are also planned regarding small localised festivals all year long where litter is a problem for the towns involved. A set of guidelines for festival organisers to reduce the impact would be a very useful tool for this kind of event.
The group is also hoping to build upon the experiences of the greening of the Wexford Arts Festival in 2010.
James Hogan, CTC, outlined the work done on developing a green events guide for Failte Ireland, and on the greening of the Wexford Festival of Opera. Based on this and ongoing work, it was decided by the Working Group that a concerted effort would be put into the development of guidelines and norms, which could be applicable to events throughout the country.
As a follow up on Monaghan County Council’s Master Composter Programme, Dr. Compost himself Craig Benton revisited St. Tiarnach’s School in Clones to ensure that the wormery that was built during the summer during the master composting programme was still operational.
The students from the schools Green Committee learnt all about worms and worm poop!
The enthusiasm of students was clearly evident and it is certain the worms will be well fed and well looked after in their new home!
Carlow Local Authorities have supported the 2nd European Week for Waste Reduction.
There were two main events/initiatives in Carlow for EWWR, focussing mainly on food waste prevention.
A Community Composting Workshop with Nuala Madigan (IPCC) 22nd November 2010 at 7.30 in the Council Chambers, County Hall.
A full page advertisement and and competition in the Carlow People and a press release to other newspapers.
“Carlow County Council welcomes the opportunity to take part in this week and to highlight the work being done by ourselves and businesses throughout the county in their efforts to reduce waste and money”, explained Fionnghuala Ryan, Environmental Awarenes Officer. “Preventing waste can help all of us to save money in all aspects of our lives.”
Claire Kelly & Dr Mary Stack of Cork County Council [Local Authority Waste Prevention Network] have challenged all stallholders at the Midleton Food & Drink Festival [September 11th] to become a Green Member and implement environmentally sustainable practices at their stalls.
Those that agreedwere rewarded with a Green Member Flag which will be on display on the day.
This year the Midleton Food & Drink Festival Committee worked closely with the Waste Prevention Unit of Cork County Council to Green the Festival. It was achieved through the participation of all stakeholders, including event organisers, volunteers, stallholders and visitors.
To learn more about the Greening of Midleton Food and Drink Festival click here
To hear a podcast of a radio advert for the Festival Greening click here
Cork Institute of Technology, with support from the Clean Technology Centre, hosted a food waste reduction fair on November 26 – 28th, 2009. This event was part of the European Week of Waste Reduction (EWWR) and it also served to
act as an awareness raising event in CIT under the Green Campus CIT EPA CGPP project.
As part of the fair:
- CIT Canteen offered green lunch options with produce sourced locally
- There was an exhibition in the Nexus with information stands and composting demonstrations – waste reduction tips and recipes.
- A low waste meal prepared by the Hospitality Management students under Seamus Forde in the Tourism and Hospitality restaurant.
- A food waste ebooklet was launched at this meal.
- Kevin Dundon, Celebrity Chef, gave a a cookery demonstration in the Tourism and Hospitality demonstration kitchen
