Greene King reaches zero-waste-to-landfill status

Greene King was the first pub to launch a partnership with the food redistribution app Too Good To Go 

Greene King embarked on numerous initiatives to reach the target, having announced its ambition of sending zero waste to landfill by 2020. The pub chain is stocking compostable straws across all of its managed pubs and has reduced general waste bins by 42% since setting the aspiration five years ago.

Other initiatives include expanding a recycling backhaul scheme for waste, investing in balers at depot and recycling bins and revamping its delivery fleet to improve the supply and delivery of recycled materials. In addition, eLearning modules were also rolled out to engage staff.

Greene King’s chief executive Nick Mackenzie said: “We’re really pleased to announce that we have achieved our goal of achieving zero waste to landfill across our managed pubs. We care about the environment the impact we have on it.

“Waste is a real issue for the hospitality industry so, as a Leader, we are extremely proud to be the first pub company in the UK to achieve the Carbon Trust Zero Waste to Landfill Standard.”

Green kings

Greene King has signed up to WRAP’s Food Waste Reduction Roadmap and Defra’s consumer-facing scheme, pledging to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.

Launched in September 2018 as a collaborative effort between WRAP and IGD, the Roadmap was designed to help large businesses across all parts of the UK’s food value chain to halve food waste across their operations, in line with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3.

Within a year, the initiative had garnered the support of 156 businesses from the food manufacture, retail, hospitality and service sub-sectors. WRAP, therefore, increased its ambition for the Roadmap; having previously aimed for half of all major food businesses to sign up, the body called in September 2019  for “all major UK food businesses” to commit to act in line with the Roadmap – and to provide evidence they are doing so – by the end of 2026.

Greene King has also signed up to Defra’s Step Up to the Plate. The commitment requires signatories to align with SDG 2, Zero Hunger, by adopting WRAP’s roadmap. The programme is being spearheaded by Defra’s food waste ‘champion’ Ben Elliot and has received support from the likes of Nestlé, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose & Partners and Costa.

Greene King was the first pub to launch a partnership with the food redistribution app Too Good To Go to allow people to purchase leftover food from its Farmhouse Inns and Pub & Carvery pubs at the end of each day. Greene King is now rolling that function out to all pubs nationwide.

Currently, around 1.6 billion tonnes of food goes to waste each year, representing about one-third of the food produced globally by weight, according to Boston Consulting Group.

In 2018, the pub chain revealed that it was saving more than 600,000 pints of water each day since obtaining a self-supply licence to deliver its own water and wastewater services.

Matt Mace