Mumbai restaurateurs talk about how tough it is to achieve zero waste status

When restaurateurs lunch together the conversation always ultimately comes down to food and the discussion of food wastage is never far off At a shoot for midday recently chefs Kelvin Cheung Bastian Karishma Dalal Bombay Salad Co and Pooja Dhingra Le 15 Cafe lamented the lack of composting facilities in the city They say they have been trying hard to find an ecofriendly solution for their waste much of which ends up being handed to the local civic body and ends up in a landfill They have considered joining forces and starting their own composting facility but its early daysCheung Dalal and Dhingra might find kindred spirits in other city restaurateurs who face a similar challenge While some compost a small percentage of the garbage they generate daily others try and reuse some control output by cooking on a needperorder basis but the greater amount gets binnedBombay Salad Co Bandra WestWaste generated every week 700 kgWaste disposed organically every week Approx 50 kg Karishma Dalal in pic who runs Bandras hip Bombay Salad Co is waiting for someone to come up with a novel idea that could use all the organic waste her restaurant generates As we are a salad bar most of our waste is made up of peels stalks and leaves Around 15 per cent is just cabbage As a restaurateur it would be a huge economical undertaking for Dalal to send her garbage to a large composting facility which Mumbai doesnt seem to have I have kept an eye out and nobody collects it on a large scale The ones who do in the suburbs want me to arrange transportationWhat sheacircu00c2u0080u00c2u0088is doing right Distributing garbage to locals who compost at homeSolution Dalal is trying to do her bit Every week she gives around five kg to Bandra residents who compost at home and around 20 kg every three days to a friend from Pune who uses it in his nursery And BMC comes twice a day for the restPod Supply Andheri West Meal prep serviceWaste generated every week Approx 30 kgWaste disposed organically every week None Chef Harsh Dixit says they follow waste management procedures including segregation as they only prep an order according to required quantities He also says that they have never tried composting I have worked in three major cities Mumbai Bengaluru and New Delhi before Pod Supply but I have never experienced restaurants composting their waste I do believe with the changing food scene in the country chefs and restaurant owners being more aware about practices like these it will soon be adopted tooWhat they are doing right Achieve minimal waste by using ingredients to the maximumSolution For example we use the vegetable peelsfish bones to make stock which we use to cook rice make soups and base for curries Off cuts of meats and seafood are used for the kitchen staff meals But we do land up with a lot of egg yolks as we use more of whitesMinistry of Salad Breach CandyWaste generated every week Approx 4 to 5 kgWaste disposed organically every week Approx 4 to 5 kgHead Chef Akanksha Saigal says the main challenge she faces is that one days waste is never the same as the next It depends on the quantity of order versus what is consumed Luckily for us our estimates are usually close to the benchmark she says She does say that in ideal conditions they would like to compost this waste themselves or via an agency however as per regulations they would need a license to do it At our end we try to keep the waste down and only hope that the BMC makes good use of it What they are doing right Reducing waste generated by ordering only whats necessary The restaurant works on an aggressive inventory system with the core team defining approximate sales per day This experience has made us almost intuitive and we know how much to order for a particular day Ordering right is the key here Saigal also insists on using ingredients across dishes to ensure less wastageLord of the Drinks Andheri WestWaste generated every week Approx 700 kgWaste composted every week NoneAt the Andheri hotspot a majority of its waste comes from leafy greens and other vegetables since not all parts of every vegetable can be consumed Therefore waste from meat is lesser says JJ Corporate Chef The restaurant has tried composting but its not cost effective We use the segregation method Due to lack of space for storing waste in Mumbai a part of it usually gets disposed in garbage vans I think the answer could be to install composting machines However these may not be cost effective for every establishment he saysWhat they are doing right Segregating dry and wet garbage and using the former for manure inhouseSolution The food waste is usually segregated between dry and wet Composting of dry garbage is easy at the restaurant level as most of it gets reused while gardening and makes for good manure says JJ But most of the wet garbage is binned There is hardly any government support in composting of such garbage