Preventing waste in the first place

Here are a few tips to reduce your waste:

• Donate surplus or unsold stock – donate surplus food to charity or have an employee; fridge for products that they can eat or take home free of charge. Guidance is available on How food businesses must dispose of food and former foodstuffs;

• Use paperless marketing methods and offer paper free receipts by emailing them to customers;

• Purchase recycled, refillable or reusable products wherever possible and

• Provide water fountains for staff.

There may be some costs to making these changes for some workplaces but increasing how much you recycle could reduce your waste disposal costs in the medium to long run. As this law applies to all retail outlets, it will be factored into business and management models.