Why aren't restaurants more sustainable?

Bluefin tuna is one of the most endangered species on the planet but it's still being served in London restaurants.

Monkfish is not very sustainable either - if it's on the menu, ask the restaurant about their sustainable fish policies

The Hive Beach Cafe in Burton Bradstock is one of the first to sign up to the Marine Stewardship Council guidelines
Photo taken in October 2011

In some ways I’m a restaurant’s dream customer because I eat out a lot.  But in some ways I’m a nightmare because I ask lots of questions, particularly about sustainability policies – or more often the lack of them.  Recently, I’ve taken to tweeting about this too.

Recently, I went to Brinkley’s Restaurant in Hollywood Road.   My friend asked what type of tuna they were serving.  The waitress had no idea, so she went to ask in the kitchen.   Her answer horrified me - bluefin tuna!  Anyone with a glimmer of interest in sustainability issues will know that this is one of the most endangered fish species on the planet.  It’s a bit like eating a panda or a tiger.

A very charming manager came to our table.  She explained that Brinkley’s food was bought centrally, for all eight of their restaurants, so it wasn’t something she got involved with. 

I suggested that she should recommend they check fish species with Fish Online.  It’s a brilliant website where you can look up the sustainability rating of any fish.  The higher the rating, the more problematic the fish – and 5 is the worst.  That’s what bluefin tuna gets. 

The River Café in Hammersmith wasn't much better.   The waiter was also baffled by our question about their policies on sustainable fishing.  So he asked Ruth Rogers, the owner, to help us out. She said that all their fish were ‘line caught’.  But when we explained that this wasn’t the only relevant sustainability criteria, she appeared to flounder.  We didn’t point out that monkfish, which was on the menu, is not line caught!

Rick Stein is another celebrity chef who really ought to know better.  But when I went to his Fish & Chip restaurant in Padstow in 2009, I had a similar experience.  The waitress didn’t even know what sustainability meant.   

However, I haven’t just had negative experiences.   Dorset’s Hive Beach Café in Burton Bradstock has signed up to the Marine Stewardship Council guidelines on sustainable fishing.  And it has a blackboard telling you about where their fish comes from. It makes it so relaxing to eat there.  If you want find out other restaurants with good fish policies you can look them up on Fish 2 Fork.  

Of course, sustainability is not just about fish.   It’s about how much energy, water and waste, as well as where the food comes from and even about community engagement too.   That’s where the Sustainable RestaurantAssociation comes in – they offer advice to restaurants to improve their practices.   And they have a ranking system too, so customers can see who’s doing well. 

The SRA’s most recent campaign is to encourage the provision of doggy bags.  They’ve worked out that the average restaurant produces 21 tonnes of food waste a year, which is about half a kilo per customer.   I suspect that Yo Sushi produce even more than that.  When I interviewed one of their staff, they estimated that they threw away about a third of what they make.   And none of it appeared to be recycled.  Clearly, they’d benefit from joining the SRA. 

Waste is actually one of my biggest concerns.  I have a particular problem with the number of disposable napkins handed out.   My children seem to think I’m a nightmare in restaurants, but I could be a dream if there was more sustainability on the menu!  

A version of this article is being published in Restaurant Magazine

Nappy recycling makes sense!

Bronwen Jameson and Paul Richardson from Knowaste

The smell wasn't very noticeable until I went into the building.  Then it hit me like a wall.  I remember from visiting a sewage farm that the trick is not to breathe through your nose.   And after a few minutes it wasn't quite so bad.   My Knowaste guides – Bronwen Jameson and Paul Richardson - were showing me around their nappy recycling plant.   Actually, it's not just nappies they're recycling but incontinence pads and sanitary products too – in the trade this is known as 'offensive waste'!

Pretty well everything coming into the plant is from the commercial sector - care homes, hospitals, day nurseries, washrooms etc.  However, they do have plans to collect nappies and incontinence pads from households.   There's more than a million tonnes of this type of waste produced in the UK each year.  Knowaste are unique in recycling it.   And they've only been fully operational with their current process for a month - so they're still fine-tuning the process.  If it were going full pelt they'd be able to recycle about 36,000 tonnes a year.   But they're aiming to increase capacity with another 5 plants within the next three to four years.  

Almost half of what comes into the plant is moisture, which has to be evaporated.   This is done during sterilisation at the beginning of the process.   Then the different materials are separated.   About half of what's produced is fibre and a quarter is plastic.  Surprisingly, the fibre is a good quality cardboard material, which can be used in outer or protective packaging, for example replacing foam plastics.  The plastic bits are used to make roof tiles and rubbish bins, amongst other things.  Knowaste are still researching potential applications.  But they say that they aim to use all of what they produce within the UK, rather than exporting it. 

One of the challenges that Knowaste have had to overcome is dealing with the super absorbent polymer in nappies - known as SAP.  They have to release moisture from the gel and stop it being so absorbent, so it can be separated from other materials.  This, along with the faecal matter is then part of the small fraction of waste that isn't recycled.  

Bizarrely, glass and metal is extracted from the waste.   This comes from stray products such as drinks cans, cutlery and glass bottles being put in the wrong bin!  But all of it is recycled.

My key interest was hearing about how the environmental benefits stack up.   And Knowaste have the figures.  When compared to either landfill or incineration, recycling reduces carbon emissions by more than 70%, roughly halves acidification and resource depletion and almost eliminates toxics.

This sounds good but most of the carbon benefits come from replacing virgin materials in the products made from recycled waste, rather than the process itself.   Knowaste admit that they can improve.  For example, they have planning permission for greener energy from waste gases, which would be a big step forward.

The economics for Knowaste look quite promising too.  They charge about the same for recycling as it would cost to landfill - a total of about £85 a tonne, including landfill tax of £56 per tonne.   But landfill costs are rising steeply with the tax alone set to be £80 a tonne in 2014 - and who knows what after that.   For local authorities there's another benefit too.   Nappies are almost the only wet and smelly waste that's left in our non-recyclable rubbish bins.   So, removing them might reduce complaints from the public about less frequent non-recyclable rubbish collections.

My view is that the biggest eco-flaw with disposable nappies is waste - see leaflet I've written comparing disposable nappies with re-usables.   Knowaste have shown that they have a good solution for this.  The challenge now is for companies that produce disposable hygiene products to come up with a good system for collecting them from households.   This is not just a problem for councils and the waste industry but for manufacturers too.