Business food waste resources
Through the Business Food Waste Partnership Grants, organisations across NSW are leading innovative projects to cut food waste, and boost recycling.
Explore business food waste projects
From hospitals and schools trialling new toolkits to councils engaging hundreds of local businesses, and industry groups mentoring bakeries, cafés, and wineries, these initiatives are demonstrating practical ways to avoid, reduce, and divert food waste from landfill. Together, they’re helping communities, workplaces, and industries turn food waste challenges into opportunities.
| Project | Organisation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Food Waste Sustainability Microskill | NSW TAFE | This online course provides practical food waste reduction strategies for hospitality staff, businesses, educators and students, and explains the new food waste source separation rules. |
| Wineries and food waste | Go Circular | To be a part of the change and understand how to manage food waste at wineries, reach out to the Go Circular team. |
| Waste-wise hospitality in healthcare | Hunter New England Health District | A tailored pathway specific to how food waste can be managed at Health District facilities. To find out more, visit NSW Government's Waste Wise Hospitality in Healthcare webpage. |
| Educating kids and managing food waste at schools | NSW Department of Education | Toolkits and other resources to help schools manage their food waste more effectively. To find out more, visit Department of Education's Solving Organic Waste webpage. |
| Bakeries – looking after your dough | Baking Association of Australia | A follow-up from the Don’t Waste Your Dough toolkit, the Baking Association of Australia are helping bakeries understand how they can reduce their food waste. To find out more, visit the Current projects webpage. |
| Blue Mountains Business Project | Blue Mountains City Council | Is your business located in the Blue Mountains? Join this Council-led initiative to learn how you can prepare for the upcoming FOGO mandates and better manage your food waste. |
| Better Business, Less Waste | Better Business Partnership | Are you in North Sydney Council, Willoughby Council or Ku-ring-gai Council areas? Want to know how to manage your food waste? Better Business Partnership is educating small to medium businesses on how to source separate food waste. To find out more, visit Circular Food Pathways: Turning Waste into Resource. |
| Hotels and accommodation – FOGO mandate readiness & implementation | Accor and Accommodation Australia NSW | Support for the hotel and accommodation sector to prepare for the new food waste rules. Reach out to their sustainability team to find out more. |
| Universities – FOGO Ready Campus | Western Sydney University, University of Wollongong and University of Sydney | Advice for campus food retailers and the university community on how to manage and reduce food waste, and prepare for the FOGO mandates. |
| Supporting music and arts venues to reduce food waste | Green Music Australia | Green Music Australia is supporting the music industry to be improve environmental performance and sustainability, including diverting more food waste from landfill. |
| Behaviour Change at Sydney Showground | Quayclean Australia | Quayclean are working on increasing food-organics recovery at Sydney Showground, through training, education and improved infrastructure. |
| Penrith Food Waste Partnership: Empowering Businesses for FOGO Mandate Readiness | Penrith City Council | If you’re based in Penrith City Council and need help preparing for the NSW FOGO mandates – reach out to the Penrith City Council as they are ready to help. |
| Randwick Care Food Waste Program | Randwick City Council | Randwick City Council offering free tailored support and staff training for cafes and restaurants to get ready for the NSW FOGO mandates. Businesses based in Randwick City Council can register at FOGO for business. |
Watch our video guides
Watch our Bin Trim videos for businesses and waste advisors
Signage
As part of a shopping centre pilot project, we have developed signage to help educate staff and customers on what can and can’t go in food waste bins. These are available in different formats for printing as bin stickers and posters. Download using the links below.
Back of house
Front of house
Flyer
Read our sector guides
- Don't Waste Your Dough Toolkit (9.1MB)
- NSW Health diversion and avoidance of food organics in hospitals (409KB)
- Early Childhood Food Waste Action Guide (652KB)
- End Food Waste Australia Catering Toolkit (3.3MB)
- End Food Waste Australia Catering Food Waste Action Plan (PDF 17.4MB)
- Your Business is Food Aged Care Toolkit (PDF 1.8MB)
- How to manage food waste in schools (PDF 1MB)
Systems mapping
Circular Futures has researched pain points in food waste source separation in 3 commercial environments:
- supermarkets (PDF 1.7MB)
- large pubs and clubs (PDF 1.3MB)
- shopping centres (PDF 1.3MB)
- universal pain points in the three business models (PDF 4.5MB).
The research explores contracts, bins and infrastructure and training requirements to enable businesses to reduce contamination and achieve best practice source separation.