Retailers should set a list of priorities to optimise how they manage food waste. The highest priority should be to sell to the customer before the use-by date, but sometimes this is not possible or products are damaged during handling. In these cases, a variety of options are available, including reduced prices as the sell-by date approaches, offering deals to restaurants, selling the products to staff or offering them to charities for distribution, and so on.

K's choice

​Peak planning, peak performance...

Aerofoil technology can be fitted to the front of refrigerated display cases to minimise chilled air and energy losses. Aerofoil solutions can cut energy consumption by up to 30 %. 

Watershed moment for microfibres

Microfibres shed by synthetic textiles during washing are currently in the spotlight, especially their impact on aquatic ecosystems. Researchers are investigating this problem and how to prevent fibres from escaping into the environment.[1]

The wet processing of textiles is energy and water intensive, as well as requiring the use of numerous chemicals. Wet processing steps, depending on the textile product, can include sizing, desizing, scouring, bleaching, mercerisation, printing, and finishing. Many of these steps require high temperatures, mechanical agitation, and different chemicals to be added, whilst thorough rinsing with large volumes of water to remove excess chemicals is needed between steps. The use of enzymes in textile manufacture is an increasingly important way to lower the energy, water

Fabric utilisation depends directly on marker efficiency. Markers are usually paper consumables showing the outlines of the pattern for making cutting and making clothes. CAD design tools are usually used to calculate how best to arrange the pattern components on the fabric layer but in small-scale operations manual marker-based methods are commonplace.

How does it work?

There are several ways to improve fabric use:

LCA for 501s ...

Retailer reduces food loss with customers on-board

Food waste should primarily be reduced to a minimum. However, some food waste will inevitably be generated. Stores can then look for ways to put unsold groceries to use.

Food residues from the grocery trade can be either edible or non-edible.

Edible food waste includes products that have passed their 'best before' date or are removed from selection due to the store's own freshness standards but are still suitable for consumption.