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Contact Region 9

Pacific Southwest, Region 9

Serving: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands, Tribal Nations

EPA’s Reducing Wasted Food & Packaging Toolkit

Save money by reducing food and packaging waste!

What Is It?

Announcing Training Opportunity and Pilot Program!
Detailed information »

The free toolkit includes a guide (pdf) and a spreadsheet tracking tool (.xsl) to help food service facilities identify and implement opportunities to reduce food and packaging waste, which saves money and reduces environmental impacts.

Why Use It?

Save Money

  • Buy less without reducing output.
  • Reduce purchasing costs & disposal fees.

Reduce Your Environmental Impact

  • And improve your organizational image!

How Does it Work?

Track Waste Generation

  • Using the Excel tracking tool for 2-4 weeks.

Implement a Waste Reduction Plan

  • Based on your assessment results.

Track Progress

  • With the Excel tool to see how much waste you reduced!

Sample Results

Entering your facility’s data into the programmed spreadsheet tool will help you to easily see what, how much, and why food is being wasted at your facility. The bar graph below was automatically generated by entering weekly data into the spreadsheet tool. In this example, we can see that chicken breasts are one of the most wasted items generated by this kitchen, represented by the purple segment of the bar graph.

example output graph from the Food tool
Sample bar graph automatically generated by entering tracking data into EPA’s Food and Packaging Waste Measurement Tool


Announcing Training Opportunity!

EPA invites you to join us for a free three-part webinar series featuring how to use the toolkit. While all are welcome, this series is specifically intended for facilities that will concurrently conduct their own assessment using EPA’s Reducing Wasted Food & Packaging Toolkit. The links to register for each webinar are included in the table below.

Webinar Series

Thursday
January 29, 2015

10:00am—12:00pm PT
Milestone 1:
Preparing for a Food Waste and Establishing a Baseline.
View PDF presentations »
Thursday
March 26, 2015

10:00am—12:00pm PT
Milestone 2:
Data Analysis, Creating and Implementing Waste Reduction Strategies; and
Milestone 3:
Tracking Progress
Register for this webinar »
Thursday
April 23, 2015

10:00am—12:00pm PT
Milestone 4:
Measuring Impact
Register for this webinar »

 

Announcing Pilot Program for Region 9 Food Services!

In addition to the free webinar series, food service facilities are invited to ‘test-drive’ the toolkit and receive extra support designed to help participants successfully complete the assessment and achieve the best results.
Space is still available. Sign up to pilot the toolkit!
Sign up to pilot the toolkit!

Pilot participation benefits include:

  • Peer group support
  • One-on-one technical assistance
  • Opportunity to potentially present in future EPA webinars
  •  Jumpstart or enhance your Food Recovery Challenge participation

To participate, facilities will need to:

  • Appoint a Waste Reduction Manager or Champion who can participate in monthly webinars and peer group discussions, use Excel, and lead on-site tracking and reduction efforts.
  • Train staff to properly track waste in the kitchen as part of their work routine (this will be discussed in the first webinar).

Contact Information

Amanda Hong (hong.amanda@epa.gov)
(415) 947-4103

 

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