Deliveries: Timing is Crucial
That’s why recycling suffers in the hospitality industry, but it doesn’t have to!
In hospitality, timing is crucial
Peak times impact you based on the daily habits of society. The standard breakfast and lunchtime rushes, then dinnertime and drinkers. The kitchen has to be on it with their prep to avoid waits, and front of house has to be ready to roll according to what the opener leaves behind for you. That’s why it’s best to unpack deliveries straight away!
This is easier said than done, a lot of the time a delivery will be left in a corner. One of those jobs that staff will get to later. Those with more experience in the industry, know this almost always never works. In my experience, I’ve come in to start the night shift and take over from the opener, whilst they run out the door waving saying “I hope you have a great shift”. Only to find stacks of drinks to unpack that have got wet and soggy in the rain, meaning the cardboard can’t be recycled and drinks are falling out of the bottom, so you end up dealing with that noise, when really you should be upstairs serving for the busier part of the night.
This is an issue that can be avoided with proper training and education. If every staff member had been through the life lesson of having a queue out the door, but also having to unload a delivery, then these issues wouldn’t happen so much. A lot of the time, there are new, young staff working front of house and there’s not enough training on waste management issues. That’s why it’s essential to have waste management training that is kept up throughout the year.
It’s up to the business owners in hospitality to take responsibility and make sure there’s someone, or a system that can check on progress throughout the year. Whether that’s a manager, or an online system like the one I’m developing. There has to be acceptance that it’s up to every individual in the workplace to make a difference every day.
How to Successfully Unpack a Delivery
When you walk in on an open and there’s a delivery in the corner, there is only one thing for you to do. Lock the main bar, go to the cellar and get stuck in. The best time to unpack a delivery is when there are no customers in and you can focus on tearing the sellotape off each individual box, flat packing boxes and discarding the plastic wrap into a separate pile. This should be a general rule, but often it’s overlooked. Staff need to unpack the delivery, stow the cardboard into the dry mixed recycling bin and throw plastic into the general waste. Satisfied that the next person will be able to find what they need in the stores and all the recycling is out of the way.
If deliveries are left to a busier time, it is likely that the person unpacking them will be rushed and make mistakes. This is when issues such as over-piling, and waste stream contamination occur. For example, if someone doesn’t rinse a tin out properly, or chucks a plate of food into the wrong bin and the food gets onto the cardboard, this makes it unusable. Even the oil from pizzas means pizza boxes can’t be recycled, so try and make sure to keep cardboard clean and dry when recycling.
