General

Recycling is something a lot of restaurants don't do, or they throw all the recyclable stuff into special dumpsters and let someone else haul it off and make the money on it. There are ways that recycling bottles and cans through your community can help build goodwill for your brand and increase sales. Recycled stuff can also be used in your business to reduce the need to purchase products for various functions. Recycling in general is an area that often gets overlooked when owners are looking for things that can be done that will affect the bottom line. Remembering that the restaurant business, and many others, are a nickel and dime business, you should spend some time learning and understanding the ($) benefits of recycling.  

 

Packaging

Products that you order often come in packages, boxes and containers that are recyclable. Some of those packages can be put to use in your business, sold or donated to others that can put them to good use. In this section, we present several ways to utilize the packaging you may be throwing away. 

 

Oils & Grease

Oils that you use for frying foods should be recycled. Grease that comes from smokers and other equipment can also be recycled if gathered and stored properly. With the proper gathering and storage methods for oils and greases, you can save money on other services, and this helps your bottom line. In this section, we discuss different easy ways to recycle oils and greases with the goal being that focus on profitability.

 

UNused Foods

When you over-prepare foods and can't reuse them, there are very good things that you can do to make sure the food cost and effort doesn't go to waste.  Giving away food is certainly one way to make customers and employees happy but that's not what we present as suggestions in this section. Giving food away to customers and employees can actually have long-term negative impacts on your business. This section describes ways to put that food to work for your business.

 

bottles & cans

Recycling bottles and cans through your suppliers can give you credits towards future purchases. Suppliers that don't offer this should be one of your past suppliers.