Product Distributionand Waste Management  

The establishment of fast food outlets has been a convenience for those who barely have time to prepare their meals at home due to hectic and busy schedules at work or very active lifestyles. Pizza, Burger Bars, Cafés, and other fast food establishments provide ease in our way of living but we don’t realise the environmental effects these fast food chains can contribute. Do you know that the fast food industry is one of the major contributors of waste disposal in landfills? The materials that they use in their store operations, such as styrofoam, plastic utensils and cups, and other solid waste, go to the landfills and become environmentally hazardous

How is waste management generated in these businesses? Fast food stores should place a high consideration on putting their waste in proper disposals, since generations of waste can start at the point of manufacture, and go through to sales, and on to households. Their operations should include waste management programs or practices, so as not to contribute to the devastating effect in the environment. Actually, the solid waste used in these businesses has a high percentage of recoverability. There are ways and means to promote recovery of these packaging wastes, even other forms of waste such as food and vegetable oil waste.

Instead of throwing away plastic packaging and waste in landfill sites, which is actually not the right thing to do, these could be recovered or recycled. They can be shredded through a shredding facility and the torn pieces may be recycled into plastic materials such as drain pipes and plastic containers. Cardboard, wood, and paper can be easily recycled and reused. To facilitate easy sorting of wastes, fast food outlets can categorise disposal bins according to the type of waste e.g. biodegradable or non-biodegradable, so customers will be bound to learn and practice waste sorting.

Since fast food chains use a lot of vegetable oil and fats, these catering wastes should be appropriately collected and disposed of. It can’t just simply go down the drain. In fact, there are companies that offer recycling services for vegetable oil waste. WasteCare offers such a kind of recycling service. What they do is turn, or convert, it into bio-fuel, and so it becomes recovered oil. This only means that recycling wastes is no longer limited to papers, plastic, glass, or other common solid wastes - but also to any form of waste, such as vegetable oil.

Certain UK companies have joined recycling operations. Fast food companies can register and subscribe to their services. WasteCare, for one, has been in the waste recycling business for quite a number of years now and has been specialising in waste management services catering to waste producers in both the industrial and business sectors. In the recovery of plastic materials, PackCare, a subsidiary of WasteCare, has already invested in a plastic recycling facility to recover and reuse commercial plastic wastes. These types of recycling services satisfy their goal of reducing landfill issues.

The disposal of food wastes in restaurants serving Pizza, Burgers and the like could be deposited in composting sites or at anaerobic digestion facilities, and be converted to reusable energy instead of dumping them as landfill. Some companies have introduced compostable containers to facilitate food waste recycling. Once the box is filled with food waste, it easily decomposes with the presence of a biodegradable wax layer, which makes the container waterproof.

These companies adhere to government regulations for waste management, and follow environmental compliances. They implement policies that complement environmental and health aspects. Fast food companies should create a sense of environmental responsibility by following proper waste management practices. If they can’t do it themselves, they can always seek the assistance of these recycling companies offering recycling service even through online.