Campusravita Oy:n asiakkaiden biojätteen vähentäminen

Abstract

Opiskelija- ja henkilöstöravintoloiden asiakkaiden lautasilta päätyy syömäkelpoista ruokaa hukkaan. Asiakkailta kertyvä ruokajäte on ravintoloille taloudellinen rasite. Lisäksi syömätön syömäkelpoinen ruoka eli lautastähde rasittaa monella tavalla turhaan ympäristöä. Tämän opinnäytetyön tarkoitus oli tutkia, kuinka Tampereen ammattikorkeakoulun tiloissa toimivan Campusravita Oy -ravintolan asiakkailta tulevaa biojätteen määrää voi vähentää. Työn tavoitteisiin kuului tutkia keinoja, kuinka asiakkaat huomioivat tuottamansa biojätteen määrän ja parantaa biojätteen lajittelua.

Opinnäytetyöhön kuului pienimuotoinen biojätekampanjan järjestäminen lautastähteen vähentämiseksi ja muilla tavoin lautastähteen vähentämisen tapojen tutkiminen. Tutkimuksessa asiakkailta lounasruokailun loppuun mennessä kertynyt biojäte punnittiin ravintolassa ennen kampanjaa ja kampanjan aikana. Tarkoituksena oli tutkia, vähentäisikö kampanja asiakkailta kertynyttä biojätettä.

Tutkimuksessa havaittiin, ettei asiakkailta kertyneen biojätteen määrässä ollut merkittävää eroa eri punnitusviikkojen välillä. Biojätemäärä asiakasta kohden vaihteli tutkimuksen aikana päivittäin 16 - 35 gramman välillä. Biojäte koostui tutkimuksessa pääosin serveteistä, leivästä, lisukkeista ja salaatista. Asiakkaat eivät lajitelleet astianpalautuksen yhteydessä jätteitään täysin oikein, joten biojätemäärä oli todellisuudessa suurempi.

Johtopäätöksenä todetaan, että biojätekampanjalla ei ollut huomattavaa vaikutusta asiakkaiden lautastähteiden syntymiseen. Muihin tutkimuksiin verrattuna Campusravitan asiakkaiden biojätemäärä on samaa tasoa kuin muissa korkeakouluissa sijaitsevissa ravintoloissa. Lautastähteen vähentämiseksi ravintolaan voidaan asettaa tietoa asiakkaille kertyvän biojätteen määrästä, lautastähteen vaikutuksista ympäristöön ja kehotus ottaa vain sen verran ruokaa, kuin asiakas syö. Hyvä kommunikaatio ravintolan ja asiakkaiden välillä on myös tärkeää biojätteen vähentämiseksi.

Extended Abstract

This extended abstract explains the purpose and main findings of the thesis work. The abstract is divided into introduction, data collection, results, and discussion.

1. Introduction The purpose of this thesis was to study how to reduce customer biowaste in Campusravita cafeteria located at the premises of Tampere University of Applied Sciences. Customer biowaste at Campusravita mainly includes napkins, fruit peels and food waste. A problem in the recycling system has been that customers place paper cups in biowaste bins. Another problem has been the amount of biowaste and food waste that is produced.

The main focus of the thesis was to find ways to reduce customers’ plate waste. Eatable food that is not eaten from a plate is considered plate waste. In the Campusravita case plate waste means all the food that is thrown away by customers. Wasting eatable food is a problem all around the world and it has an impact on the environment due to production, transporting food, cooking, and waste management.

When food becomes waste the waste produced need to be treated which has an economic impact in addition to the environmental impact. Waste management engages personnel at Campusravita, TAMK, and Tampere Region Solid Waste Management Ltd. Biowaste from Campusravita is collected with a vacuum transfer system into a biowaste container that is emptied when needed by subcontractor of Tampere Region Solid Waste Management Ltd.. The collected biowaste is then taken to Tarastenjärvi waste management site where it is composted.

Before, two customer biowaste studies have been carried out in Campusravita restaurant in 2009 and 2014. The study conducted in 2009 had results of 54 grams of biowaste per customer and the 2014 study had results of 32 grams of biowaste per customer. Studies in other Finnish universities had considerably varying results. The lowest long term biowaste amount per customer was at UniCafe restaurant that had 24 grams of biowaste as a result.

The theoretical section of the thesis explores ways to reduce plate waste, collecting of biowaste at Campusravita, and the handling of biowaste. It was found that customer food waste is produced in restaurants due to too large portion sizes, food might not be appealing enough, food might not meet expectations, dining situation might not be pleasant or food is not tasty in customer’s opinion. In addition, attitudes and values concerning food have an impact on people’s eating habits and how they think about wasting food. It is also important to bear in mind that acting environmentally friendly is not a priority to many.

It was found that plate waste can be reduced by taking certain actions in a restaurant. When portion sizes are made smaller, also plate waste is reduced. Portion sizes can be made smaller by selling smaller portions or trying to get people to take less food onto their plates. Smaller portions can be sold to those customers that need less food. Customers tend to take less food when they use smaller scoops for taking food, smaller plates are available and trays are removed. Knowing customers’ taste and preference on food and communicating with customers about the impacts of biowaste are important factors when trying to reduce plate waste. In addition, following receipts, using good quality ingredients and making sure food looks appealing is highly important.

2. Data collection The empirical part of the thesis included studying biowaste at Campusravita. Data from customer biowaste was collected during four weeks. The customer biowaste was collected by Campusravita personnel into three buckets that were 40 to 60 litres in size. Two first weeks of the data collection included weighing customer biowaste and analysing what the biowaste consisted of. The two following data collection weeks took place during the biowaste reduction campaign. The weighing of the biowaste was done after lunch time before the evening meal time.

The biowaste reduction campaign included informing customers about the existence of the biowaste campaign and reminding how plate waste should not be formed/how to reduce the amount of plate waste/the harmful effects of plate waste. There was information in TAMK intranet about the campaign and in the newsletter of Students’ union of Tampere University of Applied Sciences Tamko-topics. More campaign information was placed on the restaurant tables and electric information screens. During the campaign information about biowaste amounts was placed next to biowaste return points for the customers to see them. In addition, there were signs near food lines or on the food lines in the restaurant that encouraged customers to take only as much food they would eat and finish their plates. The behaviour of customers was also observed during the study.

The consistency of biowaste was studied during a randomly selected day in the measuring period. Biowaste was sorted by hand into different biowaste fractions that were bread, napkins, side dishes and salad, meat and fish, and other waste. The sorting of the biowaste was carried out in the restaurant to get to know what the biowaste consists of, so they that it would became clear how biowaste can be reduced.

3. Results The results stated that the biowaste amount per customer differed daily from 15,5 to 35,7 grams per person. The fluctuation of biowaste during different days is normal due to some foods being less desirable and difference between the densities of different foods. During the days when potato was a side dish biowaste weighed more.

It became clear from the biowaste consistency study that salad and side dishes is the biggest food waste portion.The second biggest food waste portion was bread, but in overall the second biggest portion of biowaste was napkins that consisted 26% of the total biowaste weight. Other waste consisted 2% of the biowaste. The 2% was waste that was not supposed to be in biowaste and food waste that was not assumed to be eaten such as fish skin.

Customers that returned their dishes did not often sort their waste as instructed at the dish return point. Some threw their napkins to mixed waste, some threw napkins and food to mixed waste, some threw their napkins to mixed waste and food waste to biowaste and the last way of sorting included customers placing food waste and napkins to biowaste. Customers who did not sort their waste correctly tended to use the waste bin closest to them at the dish return point.

4. Conclusion The findings indicate that the biowaste reduction campaign did not have a clear impact on how customers ate their food. The lowest amount of biowaste produced per customer was during the biowaste reduction campaign and the highest amount of biowaste per customer was during the non-campaign period. The differences with the two measuring periods were not clear since the averages of the measuring periods were very similar.

The measured amount of biowaste per customer was similar to other measured biowaste amounts in the Finnish universities. The data from earlier Campusravita studies indicated that biowaste at Campusravita have gone down during the years. On the other hand, there was a lack of information on how the results in the other studies were gained, so the results are not directly comparable.

Making biowaste signs at dish return points to be more easily readable could help customers sorting their waste correctly. Waste return points could be developed to function as a part of biowaste reduction goal. For example customer biowaste amounts could be informed to customers by placing a scale under biowaste bin with screen that is visible to customers. In addition, by placing a paper cup recycle point in the waste collection area, customers could sort their waste more correctly.

Finding a functioning way to communicate with customers about biowaste at Campusravita restaurant could reduce the customer biowaste amounts. Focusing on customer satisfaction is an important part of communicating with customers. Having an easier access to giving customer feedback to restaurant might help communication on that matter.

Furthermore, maintaining measuring how much biowaste is produced per customer is a good indicator how satisfied customers are about the food they have bought in a restaurant, thus for customer satisfaction and environmental purposes data collection should be kept going. Having a goal set how much customers produce biowaste could help to have smaller amount of biowaste.