Restaurants and food service businesses in Needham and neighboring communities are invited to a workshop on Reducing Food Waste on Tuesday, June 7th at 9:30 am. This free workshop is designed for the busy food service professional and is presented by Green Needham and RecyclingWorks.

This free workshop is open to food service businesses in Needham, Newton, Wellesley, and other neighboring communities interested in learning about diverting wasted food from the trash through food donation, composting, and other waste diversion strategies.

Heather Billings and Josh Cook from RecyclingWorks in MA will discuss:

• How to estimate how much food waste your business is producing and the potential savings from starting a food waste collection program.
• Recommended practices for source separation of food waste, starting in the kitchen.
• Working with commercial haulers for collection of food waste.
• Guidelines for proper food waste storage, from cleanliness to container maintenance.
• Actions to reduce food waste.
• How to partner with a food rescue organization to donate surplus food.
• Successful examples of food waste diversion at several businesses and institutions.
• The Commercial Organics Waste Ban.
• Free technical assistance available to businesses through RecyclingWorks in MA.

Green Needham is working in cooperation with the Town of Needham and partners in neighboring communities to find sustainable and cost effective ways to keep food waste out of the waste stream and support our local restaurants. Representatives from Green Needham and the Needham Department of Public Works will discuss current activities and facilitate a conversation with attendees on ideas for further local collaborations to increase food waste diversion.

To help develop opportunities for local collaboration, Green Needham has developed a brief (5 minute) online survey to collect information about how food waste is currently being handled by local food establishments. Even if you are not able to attend the workshop, your participation will help identify the most promising solutions to help your business. (Responses to the survey will not be made public and data gathered from the survey will be aggregated.)

Green Needham and RecyclingWorks are grateful for the support of Needham Bank, who is hosting this workshop at the Jack McGeorge Operations Center, conveniently located at 214 Garden Street in downtown Needham.

Please register in advance for this workshop here on the RecyclingWorks web site.