Pursuing a circular economy in foodservice

Julie has led Bidfood's sustainability programme for 6 years and recently completed an MSc in sustainability at Cranfield University; her thesis and work-based project focused on driving circularity in foodservice. A natural communicator, she enjoys learning from others as well as sharing her own experience in trying to drive positive change for both people and planet. 

Closing the Loop: Building a Circular Future in Food and Drink

We’re often reminded that the food and drink industry is responsible for many negative environmental impacts: plastic packaging, carbon emissions, biodiversity loss, deforestation, food waste and soil degradation being the most often quoted. The nature of our consumption patterns mean that we’re distanced from these impacts – most of us live in cities in the global north, several layers removed from the land and growers of much of what we eat and most of us don’t have to think about the lifecycle of waste beyond the nearest bin.  We live in a convenience-driven culture and none of us want to reduce our living standards, but it means that the environmental trajectory we’re currently on isn’t a positive one, so it’s clear that systemic change is needed at scale.  A transition to a more circular economy is often hailed as one way in which to ideally achieve the holy grail of decoupling economic growth from consumption and addressing so many of those negative impacts listed above, so in this article, we examine what a circular economy might look like within this sector and some of the key barriers and enablers to achieving change.

First of all, what does a circular economy mean?

It’s arguably best understood by contrasting it with its opposite type – a linear economy. In our current (linear) system, we extract raw materials, we process and consume them, then dispose of as waste. It’s a linear process. In contrast, the circular economy is one where we use minimal inputs (reduce), we make resources last as long as possible (reuse, refurbish, repurpose, remanufacture, recycle) and ideally we regenerate nature. It’s a contemporary buzzword but incorporates ancient principles that have been embraced through the ages – our ancestors were doing it when they made tools from bones!

So, how is a circular economy relevant to food and drink, given that we have no option than to consume food itself in a linear way? Circularity is highly context-specific, so for food and drink we need to think about encouraging circularity at every stage in the value chain and for each context. Below are just a few examples of driving circularity at opposing ends of the food and drink value chain, but there are many examples throughout the value chain. The focus here is on actionable change; there are many barriers to broader systemic change which can’t be adequately addressed in a relatively short article!  

At farm level, we need to think about regenerative farming, which means working with nature to regenerate soil systems and build resilience to climate change through stronger root systems. Regenerative systems are able to capture more carbon, help address biodiversity loss, require less irrigation and boost nutritional quality of the food itself. The Ellen Macarthur Foundation launched its own Food Redesign Challenge in 2023 – you can read more about it here.  If you’re a food and drink business that wants a more sustainable supply chain, then conversations with your suppliers are a great place to start, to assess their awareness of regenerative agriculture and try and create more demand for regeneratively produced food.

Foodservice outlets can drive greater circularity by considering their food-to-go packaging. There are solutions available for products made from renewable inputs, for example, Notpla won the Earthshot prize for their seaweed-based innovative packaging and  Vegware offers commercially compostable alternatives to plastic, but it’s crucial to provide the correct waste stream and advise consumers accordingly, otherwise well-intended actions could contaminate recycling and/or end up in landfill. This often isn’t realistic in a food-to-go environment where outlets lose control of where waste ends up. Bidfood Catering Supplies have produced a guide to driving greater sustainability in packaging solutions  - available here.

This leads us to the next point – context. For circularity, context is everything, as none of us live and consume in isolation; solutions have to be fit for purpose and easy for the consumer. Reusable catering supplies (e.g. deposit return cups) may work for festivals, where there’s a captive market, but much less so for customers on the move. Indeed, a sporting venue tried to implement deposit return rigid plastic pint-sized cups but the inclusion of their logo on the cup meant that many consumers valued taking the cup home as a keepsake more than getting a £1 deposit back – so any solution has to factor in human behaviour and work for everyone.

It’s well evidenced that consumers respond to ‘norming’ messaging – so instead of offering e.g. a 10% discount for reusable cups (which positions reusables as the exception rather than the rule), it’s far more effective to position the headline price with a reusable cup as the default (in other words, implying that reusable cups are the ‘norm around here’) and add a 10% ‘penalty’ for single use. This may not work everywhere, but may work in university and healthcare settings, where users may be more receptive to change and a more ‘captive’ market than typical foodservice business models.

At Bidfood, we ran circular economy workshops for our employees in key teams – using the Circularity Deck as a brainstorming tool. This was a powerful exercise, as those on the ‘frontline’ of purchasing and managing resources are naturally far better placed as subject matter experts to identify opportunities to reduce waste, drive renewables and use lower impact inputs. The will to change and levels of engagement were hugely encouraging and we’re still working through some of the recommendations, working out the time period for return on investment, the practicalities of implementation, customer appetite and engagement and so on.

Ultimately, circularity is undeniably challenging, but awareness of the need for it is growing. Organisations can do all they can to facilitate circular use of resources, but it’s the consumer that makes or breaks the process, so consultation and experimentation are key. There’s a clear business opportunity for innovators and those that want to promote the responsibility of their brand – but the will to change is fundamental; we need to want to get this right and drive the right outcomes for people and for planet.