Zero Waste Street Food

With generous grant support from Buckinghamshire Council’s Waste Prevention fund, in March 2024 we started a project to reduce waste and boost recycling at Haddenham’s monthly street food event organised by StrEat Meet.

There are two aims:

• to maximise the use of reusable cutlery, crockery and glassware rather than disposables
• to maximise the amount of recycling collected, including food waste, and reduce
  contamination due to things going in the wrong bins.

It has been a huge success. We have switched the bar fully over to reusable glasses, eliminating
around 200 or 300 disposable glasses at each event. Traders regularly serve food in our china bowls
and plates, and hand out metal forks all of which are washed in the Village Hall’s commercial
dishwasher and returned for reuse.

On the recycling side, we regularly collect around 6 kilos of food waste, which is then collected by
the council and ultimately ends up at the local anaerobic digester to generate energy and fertiliser,
rather than going into the general waste. Collection of other recyclables is up, and we’re able to
ensure people know exactly what goes into which bin, so should avoid contamination of recycling
loads.

Even better, the project inspired a similar scheme at Haddenham Summerfest, which is a much bigger event, and Thame Town Council are thinking about what could be done at their regular street food event. The reusable glasses, signboards and A4 poster holders have also been used at other events and will be a permanent asset for Zero Carbon Haddenham.

But we don’t want to stop there – other events, such as the village fête, could also benefit. And we
now also have 160 reusable deep trays specifically designed for street food, which should make it
easier for the traders to take part.

If you’d like to be part of the team (we can currently offer £10 towards the cost of a meal as a thank
you), get in touch via streetfood@nullzeroch.org. Or if you’re having your own event and would like
to borrow any the equipment, let us know.

For more detail, you can download the report and notes on on each event here: April 2024, May 2024, June 2024