Innovative Waste Reduction Technologies for the Hospitality Sector

The hospitality industry is no stranger to waste-reducing initiatives when seeking cost reduction. In the wake of a global traveling recovery, doing more with less has become the norm. Moving forward, doing more with less will mean leveraging hotel technologies for reducing waste.

Many technologies have become much more affordable, less out of reach, incredibly user-friendly, and easy to implement. Here are some of the best waste-reducing technologies that can be used to improve hospitality waste initiatives.

Food Waste Reduction Technologies

Food Waste Prevention
For reducing food waste, hospitality companies that invest in digital temperature sensors, just as Monnit, can be set to alert the hotel of spoilage. The sensor can be placed in the refrigerator or freezer where foods are stored, and when it detects a temperature that is deemed unsafe for consumption, the system sends an alert to hospitality staff, who can then take immediate steps to remove the food.

Food Distribution
For food that didn’t get consumed but still has time to reach another plate, Copia is an app that has revolutionized food distribution for large corporations, like The Cheesecake Factory. Food recovery powered by technology allows companies to safely donate their food and add value back as a tax deduction.

Food Waste Management
For food that isn’t recovered, hotels, restaurants, theme parks can use on-site food waste composters and digesters. Composters can drastically reduce food waste into compost. Compost can then be distributed to local farmers, used for landscaping, or leveraged in a unique partnership with non-profits or local community groups. Most food waste composters, such as the Olkin, can decrease food waste volume by large percentages within 24 hours. Both Ramada and Sheraton Group use this system for diverting waste to landfills and reducing their carbon footprint. Food waste digesters like Orca are ideal for marine hospitality such as cruise ships. The machine output from food waste is liquid, and the final product can be filtered through plumbing infrastructure or used as greywater.

Solid Waste Reduction Technologies

Smart Bins
Using IoT for hotel bin management allows for more accurate data on fill level detection and temperature detection, fire detection, tilt, or vibration detection so that you can know the status of bins at all times. Some companies also retrofit older containers into smart bins with monitoring devices. These devices cut down on routine maintenance checks, premature bin emptying and help maintenance teams know when a bin is full and needs immediate attention

Pneumatic Waste Collection Systems
Powered by air compressors and mostly seen implemented on the local, municipal level, pneumatic waste collection is an underground vacuum system. Waste, recycling, and compostable items are collected from appropriate bins above ground and then suctioned below ground for further processing, transporting of compost, recycling, and landfill items.

Robotic Recycling
For larger-scale facilities that sort their recycling on-site, hotels, for example, can leverage artificial intelligence to sort various plastics and other recyclable materials. The technology uses cameras and decreases human error, injury, and health risks associated with sorting. One of the best ways to leverage hotel waste is to sort it properly so that creative income avenues can be better realized and clean material sent to recycling partners.

Water Refill Stations
The single-use plastic hotel customer movement is growing, and with it is the demand for access to simple things like clean, modernized water refill stations. Travelers are growing attached to their reusable water bottles in place of plastic. To supply what customers demand and reduce waste, more and more hotels adopt refill station initiatives with companies like FloWater and Pathwater. These waste reduction initiatives are a great way to engage with guests and build brand rapport on waste reduction.

Educational Waste Bins for Engagement
Engagement and ownership are essential to successful waste initiatives. Smart bins that use digital engagement with the recycler increase responsibility and encourage more accurate recycling. When a guest drops an item in the smart bin, whether it be a compostable or recyclable item, waste sorting containers like EvoEco display a message about the weight and impact that particular deposit made. It’s encouraging for end-users and helps keep them educated on their waste.

AI Recyclable Sorting Bins
Really smart bins use cameras and artificial intelligence to allow for single-stream recycling, where the container does all the heavy sorting and compacting to allow for maximum space yield. Products like Bin-e help keep things simplified for hotel guests and sorting inside the bin. Removing human error, the AI sorting bins identify glass, paper, metal, and plastic, then use an internal compactor to reduce the volume allowing for increased convenience and efficiency for hotel staff.

Hospitality Waste Management Consulting with NWA

We provide advanced consolidated waste management solutions to our hospitality customers. National Waste Associates (NWA) has the complete oversight necessary to generate the greatest possible cost and environmental savings, leveraging tailored strategies for hotel groups.

Our team of experts actively work with on-site hotel managers across entire hotel groups to deliver customized solutions that fit each facility’s needs. We identify opportunities in your waste stream to monetize, reduce CO2, and move materials to streams that can be reused and recycled. Build more buying from your employees, guests, and investors by adopting sustainable solutions and improve your ESG reporting metrics on waste.

Find out how NWA can optimize your waste management operations across many locations effectively and efficiently to save you money and improve your environmental reporting.
Contact us at 1-888-692-5005 x6, or email us at sales@nationalwaste.com.

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