Hospitality managers hoping for a roaring trade this summer with bank holidays, the World Cup and other sports events should take steps now to ensure their waste management contractors don’t drop the ball and let them down.
Pub, bar, restaurant, and hotel managers planning to take advantage of increased custom during the next big summer event – the World Cup – will increase orders but may omit to look at their waste management procedures.
Realistic advice on waste management
The National Police Chiefs’ Council and the Local Government Association have produced guides for hospitality managers on customer safety and consideration for neighbours. But there has been little advice available on dealing with emergency waste management issues.
WasteSafe Services Manager Fergus Healy said: “It is eminently possible that waste will pile up during peak periods and become an environmental, health and safety or reputational risk for the business. It is almost impossible to avoid some unplanned waste overspills.
“The reality is that pub landlords and hospitality managers are unlikely to have enough space to store additional unscheduled waste correctly.
“However, there are reputable emergency waste management companies that are on call 24 hours a day, even during bank holiday weekends. They will dispose of your waste overspill quickly before it starts causing real problems.”
Five Emergency Waste Management Tips for Peak Periods
1. Complete a proper risk assessment, looking at the volume of waste likely to be generated, and how much of it will be food, glass, or contaminated waste.
2. Realistically look at your bin capacity. Do you need to order more? Do you have space for them? Can you generate free capacity just prior to the weekend by increasing the frequency of collection with your scheduled waste collector?
3. Source a reputable emergency waste carrier and tell them what you are likely to need in advance of planned big events. Have their contact details to hand and make sure the relevant members of staff have them too.
4. Inspect your refrigeration units and make sure they are working properly and have the capacity to cope. Freezer breakdowns are more common in hot weather and during busy periods.
5. Keep a weather eye out for fluctuations in your waste management needs. The changeable British climate is matched only by the fickleness of the British public.
Restaurants, pubs and clubs face major reputational and commercial risks without having robust plans to deal with periods of peak demand.
Increased food sales mean increased food waste. This must be collected quickly before it rots and releases unpleasant odours – especially in warm weather.
Regular waste collection services are not always flexible enough to offer an additional collection service for unscheduled waste, especially during a Bank Holiday weekend.
Plan ahead for effective summer waste management
It pays to plan ahead and speak to a professional emergency waste collection service in advance. A specialist emergency waste carrier will be able to deal with all waste overspills, over-filled bins, food waste, excess bottles, even contaminated or condemned waste from freezer breakdowns.
Don’t face peak demand without back-up
Fergus Healy said: “We specialise in emergency waste collection services. So, we work directly with hospitality and retail customers as well as indirectly through waste management companies and waste brokers. Food waste, general waste and glass waste collection companies can run their fleets at the optimum capacity for 10 months of the year, and we step in for the two months when surges in demand mean they need extra support.”
WasteSafe Services provides emergency food waste collection services to a number of national hospitality and waste management companies, and has developed the fastest, most effective national freezer breakdown response service in the UK.
Fergus Healy said: “At WasteSafe Services we offer a rapid same day response time, often in under 6 hours, to any UK postcode. We collect virtually any type of unplanned waste. We help hospitality and retail customers stay compliant and keep their front of house operations on track by discretely working in the background sorting out unplanned waste they have generated in peak periods.”
