Saskatchewan Council says food waste is costing Canada billions

SASKATOON – The Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council says commercial and residential food waste is costing Canada $27 billion a year.

The group hopes to see this trend change nationwide and in the province, especially when it comes to large kitchens that are found in restaurants or hotels.

“It’s a huge, huge deal,” said Joanne Fedyk, the council’s executive director.

It’s hard for large operations to facilitate the transportation of food waste, says Fedyk. She believes that there is an entrepreneurial opportunity for a third party to step into this role.

“It’s difficult as a food service institution of any kind in Saskatoon to find a solution that will work for you for dealing with your food waste.”

At the Saskatoon Club, Chef Anthony McCarthy took matters into his own hands. Four years ago he connected with a local farmer, who now picks up organic food waste from his kitchen every two weeks.

“It was kind of a twofold thing; he was getting some organic matter to do his land and it was getting taken away for free from me,” said McCarthy, who says he sends around 45,000 liters of compost to the local farm in a given year.

McCarthy’s his kitchen is a medium sized operation, which makes it easier to handle his composting effort compared to a larger facility.

“You look at some of the hotels in the city who have hundreds of rooms and banquet services and all that, the volume is going to be monumentally more,” said McCarthy, who has headed the Saskatoon Club kitchen for six years.

“The expectation in a hotel is that you never run out of anything,” said Trevor Robertson, executive chef at the Radisson hotel in Saskatoon.

The Radisson runs a $5.5 million food and beverage operation yearly and works with a third party who helps facility their food waste.

“Recycling costs more than waste removal and so it’s something that we do here consciously, but there’s other establishments that can’t afford to do it,” said Robertson.

The Reduction Council says they believe the problem could be handled more efficiently if Saskatoon had an area to appropriately handle and re-utilize the amount of waste that comes from commercial food businesses.

Some waste is currently processed in Craik, Sask., but Fedyk said she would like to see the city move quickly towards a local option.

“The big piece that’s missing is some kind of composting or organics management facility,” said Fedyk.

“Once that facility is established and we can make products from the food instead of throwing them away, then everyone can jump on board,” she added.

For now, chefs like McCarty and Robertson are staying dedicated to reducing waste in their kitchens.

Robertson owns a hobby farm near Langham, Saskatchewan and said that for the last few years has been taking food waste out of the Radisson’s kitchen to compost on his land.

“I have a compost field there, we have some chickens and the chickens pick through it and eat some of that stuff,” said Robertson.

“Daily I am taking food out of here on my own accord.”