From: b sabha <bcsabha.kal...@gmail.com>
http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/SilkStalkings/trained-restaurant-staff-could-help-customers-order-wisely-keep-garbage-levels-down/ [http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/food-BCCL.jpg]<http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/SilkStalkings/trained-restaurant-staff-could-help-customers-order-wisely-keep-garbage-levels-down/> Trained restaurant staff could help customers order wisely, keep garbage levels down<http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/SilkStalkings/trained-restaurant-staff-could-help-customers-order-wisely-keep-garbage-levels-down/> blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com On the way to buy glorious flowers at the Ghazipur wholesale market in east Delhi, it is impossible to miss the mountain of garbage on the right flank of the highway, euphemistically called a landfill.... Silk Stalkings - EAT LESS, WASTE LESS Reshmi Dasgupta Trained restaurant staff could help customers order wisely, keep garbage levels down On the way to buy glorious flowers at the Ghazipur wholesale market in east Delhi, it is impossible to miss the mountain of garbage on the right flank of the highway, euphemistically called a landfill. Kites circle endlessly over the noxious escarpment and hidden fires emit spires of smoke as dumper trunks snake up to unload more rotting waste. There is no starker evidence of how much garbage modern cities that is, all of us residents create every day. Thankfully Indians still have not reached the wastage levels of the so-called “developed“ countries of the west. Even so, our sheer numbers make up for the low per capita waste generation. And the landfills keep rising. Every year New York generates over four million tons of waste, of which a third is discarded food. That rots and emits the greenhouse gas methane. But at least the city authorities there have been working with generators of food waste individuals and restaurants -to curb output so that that the landfills will eventually stop growing. Restaurants create half a million tons of food waste a year in New York. It's estimat ed that if just 5% of them reduce wastage by donating uneaten food or composting leftovers, landfills could shrink 14%. Residents have been pitching in by composting organic waste in individual or community plots, but how about simply wasting less? An eastern nation like Singapore has taken a different tack. It's solid waste generation rose marginally in 2016 to 7.81 million tonnes but so did its recycling especially construction debris. More importantly, domestic waste generation dropped a bit from 2.13 million tonnes in 2015 to 2.09 million tonnes in 2016 and recycling increased. That's because the Singapore government has been combatting food wastage at many levels, including consumption.Freedom to Squander the latest battle cry against Consumer Affairs and Food minister Ram Vilas Paswan's inarticulate advocacy of listing portion sizes on menus to curb over inadvertent ordering-would clearly cut no ice there! Singapore's National Environment Agency's food waste management strategy says “The preferred way to manage food waste is to avoid wasting food at the onset“. So since 2015, it has been conducting programmes for “smart food purchase“ and teaching ways to cook and store food that minimise wastage at source and save money. It has also put out relevant content in the media including online and reached out to schools and food retail brands to join this effort to “remind and encourage“ people not to waste food. It has even produced a waste minimisation guidebook for restaurants and supply chains in collaboration with major international hotel groups. Particularly those Indians prematurely protesting about supposed curbs on what or how much we can eat, may be interested to learn that the guidebook has a separate section called “food portion management“. It suggests restaurants offer “different portion choices or indicate serving sizes in menus (e.g. for sharing by 3 4 persons)“. It also advocates restaurant wait staff be “well-informed on serving sizes and ingredients of dishes in the menu“ in order to “minimise food wastage by customers“.Making staff aware of food waste reduction initiatives is also suggested. Sounds like our minister was inspired by this Singapore initiative to broach an Indian variant, if incoherently. While eating more judiciously as the PM suggested in a recent Mann ki Baat is a sensible personal initiative to opt for, an incident last October showed me the value of listing portion sizes and training staff to help people order correctly. In our case, it would have prevented under-ordering and not left us with a bad taste in the mouth. At a (then) newly opened restaurant in a five star hotel, we were burdened with a surprisingly taciturn and singularly unhelpful staff. So we went by the prices to guess portion sizes. At `500++ I reasoned that one portion of steamed rice would suffice for the three of us as we tend to focus on the proteins rather than carbs when eating out. The rice turned out to be barely three tablespoons' worth. The duck portion was equally measly. Had portion sizes been mentioned or staff trained, we would have been saved a lot of time and trouble. We can try to eat less, waste less and thus not make Ghazipur's garbage mountain rise as fast.Why can't restaurants help us do so too? [http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/NasData//PUBLICATIONS/THEECONOMICTIMES/MUMBAI/2017/04/15/Photographs/010/15_04_2017_010_032_004.jpg]<http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31818&articlexml=Silk-Stalkings-EAT-LESS-WASTE-LESS-15042017010032#> Silk Stalkings - EAT LESS, WASTE LESS <http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31818&articlexml=Silk-Stalkings-EAT-LESS-WASTE-LESS-15042017010032#> epaperbeta.timesofindia.com The Times Of India daily ePaper - Watch digital ePaper of India from around the world. 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