Do you seek untapped opportunities or ways to turn
food waste into a profitable business? If YES, here are 48 best food waste
recycling business ideas for 2021.
As much as 40 percent of the food produced in the
United States are not consumed and similar situation is in India, according to a report from the National
Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Much of it ends up in landfills as waste.
Putting this together, it could be said that people throw out more than $300 billion worth of food each year.
Why Turn Food Waste into Wealth?
Not only are financial resources lost when food is
wasted, it has long been discovered that food waste generates about 8 per cent
of global greenhouse gas emissions. By curbing the needless loss of precious
natural and nutritional resources in food, we will also reduce the amount of
harmful gases that get released into the atmosphere.
It has been noted that a significant proportion of
food waste comes from food items in good conditions that were not used before
their expiry dates, and as health codes require that expired food items be
discarded, such unconsumed food items are sometimes sent to landfill sites.
The astronomical waste that is encountered in the food
sector has given rise to a whole new slew of businesses. Because this sector is
still emerging, there is a lot of room for entrepreneurs to develop new ideas
that can help them profit from this sector.
But while you are still trying to think up new ideas
of your own, here are some business ideas that can help you profit from the
wastages of people.
48 Best Food Waste Recycling Business ideas for 2021
1. Start a
commercial worm farm
Commercial worm farms are known to process large
amounts of organic waste. These farms are ideal solutions for schools and
universities, restaurants and cafes, green grocers and supermarkets. It is
general knowledge that worms feed on food waste, so this is one way to put
leftover foods, fruits and vegetables to good use.
Processing waste with a worm farm is simple, effective
and requires only a small amount of time to maintain a healthy system. The worm
when they are full grown can then be sold to livestock farmers for profit.
2. Start a
organic fertilizer company
One thing that generally comes out of food waste is
manure, and you can take advantage of this to start a company that transform
food waste into commercial fertilizer. There are various ways this can be done
to yield very soil effective fertilizers. This is indeed an organic fertilizer
since you won’t be utilizing any chemicals in the process. You can source for
food wastes from restaurants, fast-food, schools etc.
3. Manufacture
and sell food waste recycling machines
With a lot of American families being wary of what
they throw away so as not to contribute to the growing global climatic problem,
they are now seeking for ways to recycle their food wastes. You can set up a company
that manufactures machines that turns food waste into homemade fertilizer in a
very simple way. These products would see a big sell among people that are
conscious about their environment, and also those who own gardens.
4. Start a
gleaning business
Gleaning is the act of collecting excess fresh foods
from farms, gardens and farmers markets. You can start a gleaning business
where you target leftovers in farms so as to reduce food wastages in farms.
After you gather your produce, you need to have where you would distribute
them, so you need to get all these researched and ready before you start the
business. You can comfortably start this business if you live in a farming
community.
5. Start a food
Waste Management Blog
With so much going on in the food waste management
industry, starting a waste management blog to cover the latest news, trends,
business ideas, and more in the sector is another waste management business
idea to venture into. You can especially focus on new ideas and inventions that
enable people make good use of their food waste.
6. Develop an
app that lets people know when restaurants have leftover food
In a bid to stop restaurants from throwing away
already prepared meals that were not sold, you can develop an app that aims to
connect restaurants with consumers. When using the app, the restaurants are
made to log when they have left over food at the end of a sales day. They can
also log the type and quantity of food they have left. The system then
automatically informs a network of volunteers about the food allowing them to
mobilize, collect and distribute it to those in need.
7. Start a
Bio-Fuel Production Business
Bio-fuel is an oil commodity that is made from waste
products. Just like kerosene, petrol, or diesel, it can be used to power large
machinery. Its ease of production and widespread use makes it a valuable
alternative source of fuel in many parts of the world. You can contact large
restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, farmers etc. where you know are likely to
waste food on a regular basis, and strike a deal to get the waste off their
hands.
8. Start a food
waste collection centre
Waste collection centers are popular in many parts of
the world. Here, you get to open up a center where consumers can go to submit
their waste products for a small fee as payment. These wastes are then further
resold to companies who need them to produce things like bio-fuel or to feed
worms or animals or to they are taken to city dumps.
9. Start a food
bank
A food bank is a non-profit, charitable organization
that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough food to
avoid hunger. Instead of sending the waste to landfill, an environmentally
friendly way of dealing with food items that are in a good condition is to
donate them to food banks or charities prior to their expiry dates.
Food banks are usually started as nonprofit
organizations. Here, you get to contact supermarket and food vendors telling
them that you are available to receive unsold foods from them. After
collection, these foods are typically sold very cheap to consumers, and
sometimes they are given away.
10. Invent a
product that extends vegetable shelf life
A huge amount of food is wasted every day because the
foods tend to go bad even before they are eaten. Because of this, supermarkets
and even consumers throw away loads of food every day. Inventing a product that
could significantly extend shelf life of fruits and vegetables would go a long
way to reduce food wastage and would earn you a lot of money if you get to sell
the patent.
11. Prepare and
sell meals from unsold supermarket produce
It is a sad fact that tons of food get thrown out on a
daily basis while a lot of people still go hungry. To help to ameliorate this
trend, you can start up like a budget restaurant where you get to prepare and
sell meals from groceries that are about to be thrown away at supermarkets and
food services.
You can contact staff at these supermarkets and food
services to help you recover groceries that haven’t been consumed, but note
that you need to first of all get permission from the appropriate authority. If
you cannot cook the meals yourself, you can employ a trained chef to prepare
healthy and nutritious meals from the produce. This food is then sold at very
discount prices that less privileged families can afford.
12. Recycle food
waste to animal feed
Producing animal feed is one profitable way to take
advantage of food waste. You can start food waste recycling business that helps
companies reduce waste-disposal costs by taking the leftover food off their
hands. You can recycle fruits, vegetables, dairy, deli and bakery foods for
conversion to animal feeds, which you then sell to livestock farmers. For a
small farm that rears maybe pigs, you can collect the leftover foods and
vegetables and feed them to your pigs.
13. Start an
electricity company that runs on food waste
It is indeed possible to generate electricity from
food waste. This method of food waste recycling is indeed tried and trusted.
Here, a biological process known as anaerobic digestion is used to digest the
food to produce electricity. Indeed anaerobic digesters exist, but they are
mostly used to compost sewage and manure. Electricity produced from this medium,
depending on the capacity is capable of powering an entire community.
14. Start a meal
program/soup kitchen
A soup kitchen, meal center, or food kitchen is a
place where food is offered to the hungry usually for free or sometimes at
below market price. Soup kitchens have been collecting unwanted food from farms
and businesses since the 1980s.
Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoods, soup
kitchens are often staffed by volunteer organizations such as churches or
community groups. Food items used in soup kitchens are usually sourced from
unsold items at supermarkets and restaurant. This is also a way to reduce food
wastage and also make a little income from it.
15. Organize
flash sales
In order to prevent food stuffs from rotting on
supermarket shelves because there are no one to pick them up, you can start
organizing flash sales for these produce. You get to make contact with
supermarkets, and if they have a huge quantity of fruits, vegetables, meats,
you name it, that would exceed its shelf life very soon, then you have to
devise ways to sell off these products quickly so as to make a tidy cut for
yourself.
You can declare a flash sale and notify consumers
through text messages and emails. You can slash the price of the produce by 40
or 50 percent as the case maybe
The goal here is to get the produce that would have
been otherwise wasted off the shelf, while bringing in some income to the
supermarket. Do this for a few companies and you will be walking away with a
tidy sum at the end of the month.
16. Start a
service that brings farmers and retailers together
As a way to stop food from going bad after they have
been harvested, you can set up a program or service that brings farmers and
retailers together fast enough so that the products can be sold off on time.
This can be in form of an app or a network program that connects farmers with
the nearest retailers. You get to be the middleman here, and when the
transaction has been successfully completed, you get your cut.
17. Use surplus
fruits and vegetables to make unusual juices
Instead of allowing fruits and vegetables go to waste,
you could get them together and whip up some unusual juices, pastes and purees.
This is one way to make use of discarded fruits and vegetables whilst also
making an income for yourself.
You could source your raw materials mainly from
farmers. You can request them to sell you fruits and vegetables that did not
make it to supermarket shelves at much reduced cost. You equally need to employ
good marketing strategies for you to sell of your unusual juices, pastes and
purees.
18. Create an
app that allows people donate food
If you are an app developer, you can still make money
from food waste. You can develop an app that allows food companies to donate
surplus food to nearby charities and organic waste to composters, farmers and
biogas generators.
The app can also be used to support food recovery
programs bringing food from stores, restaurants or other food establishments to
local charities. If your app is properly marketed, you would get enough
downloads to make the stress worthwhile.
19. Start a
larva feed business
This business is one profitable business idea that can
come from food waste. Here, you get to utilize special technologies to convert
organic waste from food factories, restaurants and hotels, plus out-of-date
produce from supermarkets to create larvae feed.
The resultant feed is used to feed fly larvae, which
in turn is used to feed chickens and farm-raised fish. This business not only
reduces food waste, but also turns a profit for the company while reducing the
environmental footprint of raising chicken and fish.
20. Start a worm
to fertilizer farm
Repurposing waste can be as simple as it is ingenious.
You can use red worms to transform food and other biodegradable waste into
organic fertilizer. Doing so, of course, reduces waste but also results in
higher-quality soil.
21. Turn food
waste into plastic bottles
Almost anything is possible in the recycle world. You
can start a recycling company that transforms food waste into plastic bottles.
A company called bio-on is presently utilizing this method to make a lot of
money out of discarded food.
Using a fermentation process involving sugar beet,
Bio-on manufactures plastics that can be used for anything from food packaging
to electronics. Better yet, the process requires no chemical additives, and the
end products are biodegradable, dissolving upon prolonged contact with
bacteria. You can as well borrow a leaf from this company to start your own.
22. Turn Banana
flakes into baby food
A lot of countries in East and West Africa are major
banana producers. During peak banana seasons, much of these bananas go to waste
because they lack methods of preservation. A savvy entrepreneur can buy the bananas
from farmers in bulk and produce baby food from it. You could sell a dry
porridge mixture or banana rice, or you could produce moist ready food mixture
sold in jars.
23. Make cooking
fuel from food waste
One very popular way of making cooking fuel is from
rotting bananas. This recycling method was made popular by researchers from the
University of Nottingham (UK) after they perfected the technology and produced
what they called banana briquettes.
If you live in a country that produces banana, you
could collect banana waste by buying it cheaply from farmers and households in
order to produce low-cost cooking fuel from it. This cooking fuel is especially
useful in African countries where cooking fuel/kerosene or gas is expensive. If
you do not live in an African country, then know that you have to export your
product.
24. Start a
tomato paste factory
Nigeria is Africa’s top tomato producer and ranks 13th
in the world, but about 50 percent of Nigeria’s tomatoes go to waste each year.
Despite this, Nigeria is one of the top importers of tomato paste in Africa.
There is so much space for tomato paste production there and Nigerians love
tomatoes in their stews and sauces. The model may also work in other markets in
Africa. Also think of producing, packaging, and branding liquidized tomato
puree.
25. Make
nutrition bars from spent grain
The grains used in making beers are most times
discarded as trash, but not anymore. These spent gains can be used to make
items that are edible as well as nutritious. One product you can make from
spent grain is a nutrition bar. You can get the grain, mix them up with other
nuts and dried fruit, then you get them fortified with nutrients. With proper
marketing, this product is sure to make good sales especially among people that
are running on a diet.
26. Make beer
from discarded bread
It is now possible to make beer from bread. With this
new innovation, all those discarded bread and all those sandwich backs can now
be put to good use. You can contact restaurants, hotels, bakeries etc. for
daily supply of unused bread and sandwich backs.
27. Make cookies
from carrot peels
This is indeed another way to make some good profit
from food waste. Carrot peels can indeed make good and nutritious cookies.
28. Turn fruit
peels into supplements
Fruit peels and leftover fruits are not only good for
making compost, you can as well make something beneficial to the body out of
it. Fruit peels like left over carrot tops and peels, onion skins, celery tops,
pineapple cores, string bean tips, romaine leaves and watermelon rinds are
naturally packed with vitamins and minerals that you may not even get in the
fruits themselves.
You can open a factory where you get to harness these
vitamins and package them as supplements. It is worthy to note that the average
American household uses supplements, so you would not lack market for your
products.
29. Start a
bakery that runs on leftovers
Flour, sugar, butter, fruit both dry and fresh are
always getting discarded. If you have where to assess these resources on a
daily basis, you can start your own bakery. You can sell your bread and other
pastries on a discount, and you can locate your bakery in a less privileged
locality so that you would find consumers for your produce.
30. Create an
app that shows users supermarkets with about to expire products
If you have a way with apps, you can create an app
that shows consumers supermarkets and food stores that have about to expire
produce. These products are usually sold off by supermarkets at cheap prices so
as not to lose them altogether. You can approach supermarkets that are
interested and link them up. When consumers download this app they get to
receive notifications on stores running these discounts.
31. Make banana
flour that is Gluten-free, wheat-free and has low GI
Dried bananas are gluten-free, wheat-free, and has a
low GI. This is one business someone who lives in an area with lots of bananas
can start. The bananas are first dried then they are ground to flour. This
flour can be used for a lot of purposes including cooking and baking.
32. Turn food
waste into compost
Compost is an important soil amendment made of
decomposed plant matter including food scraps. Fruit and vegetable scraps, plus
food wastes such as coffee grounds, tea bags, and eggs shells, can be
composted. The earth has been recycling organics for billions of years, but
much recently, humans have interrupted that circular system by entombing
valuable nutrients in landfills and relying on chemical fertilizers.
You can start a compost business where you get to
gather food wastes from households and places that deal primarily with food.
With the right composition, your compost pit can compost properly in a week or
two and you get to sell them off to farmers in your locality.
33. Turn food
waste to industrial fuel
The largest single portion of the trash heap is
organics, or things that once had life. That apple core, that untouched
macaroni salad, that slice of pizza, you name them. As they decompose, they
release methane, a greenhouse gas that is harmful to the environment, but
useful to humans.
You can start up a company where you get to mine these
gases that result from decomposition into industrial fuel. The concept is that
greenhouse gases are captured and channeled into giant chemical tanks, where
the water-resistant solar cells turn the carbon dioxide/water combination into
fuels.
34. Start a
rendering company
Rendering is a process that converts waste animal
tissue into stable, usable materials. Liquid fats and solid meat products can
be used as raw materials in the rendering industry, which converts them into
animal food, cosmetics, soap, and other products.
You can start a rendering company where you get to
gather animal waste from abattoirs, restaurants and such and process them into
usable fats. You can equally start a company that makes use of those fats, or
you can sell the byproducts to companies that need them.
35. Start a food
waste awareness programme/NGO
In spite of the obvious fact that food waste can be
used in a sustainable way to address many pressing social and environmental
issues, a lot of people who produce food waste are not aware of such uses. You
can start a food waste awareness programme, or even an NGO in this regard. You
can utilize this platform to make people environmentally conscious of the
impacts of food waste and to encourage them to manage food waste in a
sustainable way.
36. Start a
research institute
Food waste is considered by many people as non-useful
materials that are harmful to the environment. They can also cause illnesses
such as meningitis and foot disease if human beings come in contact with them.
While all these are true, but another truth is that there is no such thing as
waste.
We discard food we don’t use again because we don’t
know what to do with them. In today’s world, it is possible to make good use of
food waste by turning them into resources. You can start a food waste research
center where you get to find out new ways to utilize food waste for the benefit
of the environment.
37. Start a
mushroom farm that uses coffee grounds
Generally, mushroom growers use felled logs to grow
their mushrooms. They prepare the logs, sprinkle the spores and the mushroom
grows. But to get the right logs can be quite expensive. It has now been
discovered that mushrooms can comfortably grow on coffee grounds; that is the
waste product that is left after coffee has been brewed. You can visit cafes and
offer to take these messy grounds off their hands at the end of each day, and
when you have enough, you can start your mushroom farm.
38. Start a
business that helps restaurants reduce food waste
In the race to reduce food waste, knowledge is
everything. It is a fact that a lot of chefs don’t know how to make the best
use out of food ingredients.
You can make a business out of going around to teach
this to them. You can use technology to help restaurants or cafeterias measure
the ingredients that can be utilized in a business day, the ideal size of food
that should be in a plate, and how to make better use of food ingredients,
example, how to use vegetable shavings to make soup stock. The ultimate goal
here is to help them reduce their level of wastage drastically while you make
some income out of it.
39. Start a
grocery store that sells imperfect produce
For a standard supermarket or food mart, blemished
fruits and vegetables are bad for business, and as such they don’t collect them
talk more of putting them up on the shelf. In fact, fruits, vegetables, meats
etc. get sent to these stores based on specification, and produce that don’t
meet these standards are not accepted.
Granted, they would always be blemished produce after
the harvest, and instead of composting those produce or sending them to
landfills, you can start a business off them. You can start a grocery or food
store that sells blemished produce at very low cost directly to consumers. It
would not be difficult to get these produce as farmers would gladly give them
out for a token.
40. Start a
bakery that uses spent grain
Another way one can make a profit out of food waste is
to start a bakery that uses spent grain from breweries. Most brewers give their
grains away for free to anyone willing to pick them up, since they would have
to pay for waste disposal otherwise.
Collecting spent grain for your bakery will cut down
the cost of ingredient for you as you can dry the grain, grind them and use
them as flour. You can start labeling your bread from the brewery your spent
grain came from to compensate the brewery.
41. Start an animal
feed factory that uses spent grain
Grains are used to feed birds and livestock because of
the nutrients it contains. Spend grain which is grain that is leftover after
the beer brewing process is also equally nutritious despite it been already put
to use. The most common recipient of these grains are farmers who use it as
livestock feed due to its high protein, starch, and fiber content.
You can start a livestock feed mill that has spent
grain as the major ingredient it uses for feed production. Because spent grain
costs little or nothing to obtain as breweries would gladly give them out to
you, you get to cut your cost of operation by half. Farmers would gladly buy
well produced livestock feed from you then if they had to process the spent
grain by themselves.
42. Start an
organic food waste collection business
Businesses that are into the food business are always
having organic wastes in their hands which they usually don’t know how to deal
with. Cafes have coffee grounds, breweries have spent grain, restaurants have
food waste etc. Being that a lot of other businesses utilize these wastes, you
can start lifting these wastes and distributing them to businesses that need
them. If you play your cards well, you can charge your fees at both ends, that
is you can charge a fee for lifting the waste out of the hands of the
producers, and charge the users a fee for the service.
43. Start a
company that produces jam from damaged fruits
Another way food waste can be turned into a profitable
business is to look into spreads and dressings. If you really know how to
produce jams, chutneys, salad dressings etc., you can start doing so in a low
cost way by making use of damaged or misshapen fruit. With their long shelf
life, you wouldn’t be pressured to sell the jams and stuff immediately so that
you can establish market channels.
44. Start an
anaerobic digestion plant
Anaerobic digestion is the most prevalent method of
processing general food waste. Anaerobic digestion is a process in which
microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of gaseous
oxygen. As the microorganisms break down the feedstock, a mixture of methane
and carbon dioxide called biogas is produced.
This biogas can be combusted to generate heat and
electricity or processed into natural gas and fuel. The material remaining
after the digestion process is complete is called digestate, which can be used
as animal bedding, applied directly to farmland, or composted for use as a soil
amendment.
45. Start a
disposable food waste bag manufacturing business
Disposable food waste bags are used in so many homes
around the world to dispose of wastes generated in the home. With its
widespread use and ever-growing market base, you could start your food waste
management business career by first manufacturing disposable food waste bags.
46. Start a
Residential Garbage Collection Business
Residential environments are always looking for more
ways to keep their environments clean at the lowest possible cost. You could do
this by starting a low-cost garbage collection business and market your
services to people living in estates and several other serene environments.
47. Produce
coffee oil to fuel cars
A new technology has just emerged where oil can be
extracted from coffee and turned into fuel for cars, stoves, woodburners and
open fires. The coffee sector wastes millions of tons of grounds each year, and
these wastes can be collected and put to good use. You can perfect this
technology and use it to produce an alternative fuel source.
48. Hold food
waste parties
Holding food waste parties is a fun way to make good use of food waste. You can gather a couple of friends and get them to make meals out of leftovers they have in their homes. These leftover meals can be taken to shelters and distributed to people who need them, not in form of leftovers, but in form of piping hot meals.
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Food bank is the simplest way to consume remaining food
ReplyDeleteIt'll fullfil the requirements of the needy😊