Bec Bowie

Starting July, the EPA is asking hospitality venues to separate food waste. That means separating your prep, plate and spoilage waste from general waste and choosing an organics recycler to collect it. Given how busy and stretched hospitality venues can be, this could feel like the dishwasher going down on Sunday morning - a total hassle. Get in touch with me, I can make meeting the mandate easy and of actual benefit to your business. Book a free desktop audit in my bio, or give me a call on 0412 130 120.

FLIP THE FOOD WASTE MANDATE! Don’t do it because you don’t want a 50k fine, do it because you want a better, more profitable business. Ask me how! Link in my bio for a free desktop audit for your business, or get on the blower and call me on 0412130120.

Loved collaborating with Jess and Max from @resourcfulliving to essentially talk 'keeping stuff out of landfill' @50clydest first Repair Cafe. My focus is food, Jess's focus is plastic. In a hospitality setting, food and plastic make up the bulk of waste. Here are the top ways we reduced food and plastic waste @estabar_ and kept 82% of our waste out of landfill. Food - Small fridges - yep, not much bloody space to order too much or lose stock. - Local suppliers - fresh food lasts longer, tastes better. - Tight menu - our tiny kitchen meant we just couldn't do all the things - which turned out to be a blessing. Just what was in season or essential, and the same element repeated across the menu meant everything got used up and prepped fresh. - Appropriate service sizes - from the outset, we found the sweet spot for our serving sizes, enough so guests we're satisfied, not so much that guests left feeling stuffed, or good food wound up in the bin. - The last 10% is profit - that was one of my mantras, I was careful to coach my kitchen to trim fruit and veg lightly, find a place on the menu for 'off-cuts,' and use their spatula's to get every last gram out of the bowl or blender. - Compost! Yes, at first it was my own back yard and then local small composting solutions became available. Huge fan of small, local composting solutions! Plastics - No single serve drinks - we would happily fill guests water bottles and we worked with Maggie @thehonestjuice and Erin @pillidgefarm for kombucha. They both took their bottles back and we served drinks in glass. - No Chinese containers - these are such a trap! Because they're single use - the food inside sometimes gets seen as disposable too. Potential to waste food and plastic. - Milk on Tap - yep, saving us from carting 8000 milk bottles 250m to the bin room every year and all that plastic. - Soft plastics were recycled with @curbyit and all other plastics, if they couldn't be retuned to suppliers, went in our commercial recycling where we hoped for the best. Now, I connect hospitality venues with Jess @resourcefulliving to be sure plastic is recycled again and again.

A great local collaboration keeping plastic out of landfill. The team @firstlightlambton engaged Jess @resourcefulliving to make their table tops from recycled plastic! Happily recycling plastic waste with Jess is one of my favourite solutions, so @firstlightlambton can be sure their plastic ‘waste’ and even this sample piece of tabletop will be made into something beautiful. Stay tuned though, we’ve got another sweet collaboration with Jess in the workshop now. In the meantime time, this sample piece for their tables is heading back to Jess @resourcefulliving to be recycled again 👌

My weapon of choice, spatulas. One of the most important tools in any kitchen to avoid waste / maximise profitability. That last 10% in a bowl, on a chopping board, in a sauce bottle - I always looked at it as profit and made sure my team got it into service. A great night sharing the stage at the first @50clydest Repair Cafe with Jess and Max from @resourcefulliving My message was ‘let’s keep food out of landfill.’ We just can’t afford the lost nutrition, the lost energy and expense, the impact rotting food creating methane is having on planet and space in landfill! We’re going to run out of landfill space around 2030, getting food waste out is an easy part of the solution. My fellow crusader here Jess, is determined to keep plastics out of landfill. Jess is taking on hundreds of tonnes of ‘waste’ plastic and recycling it into fabulous new products. For hospo, the teams @firstlightlambton and @crystalbrookkingsley have worked with Jess to make table tops as one small example. Keep your spatula handy friends, follow Jess @resourcefulliving and stay tuned for the next Repair Cafe @50clydest Photo by @livecreativlee

Last Friday afternoon our first Repair Café brought over 300 people through 50 Clyde St — fixing, learning, sharing ideas, digging through Upcycle’s Destash, and grabbing a slice of pizza along the way. It was a total vibe where you could see people connecting, skills being shared and all kinds of items finding new life. It’s the Clyde St way: community coming together through art, creativity and sustainable thinking. Big thanks to everyone who came along, and to those who made it happen — @upcyclenewcastle , @reclaimedcommons , @sparkhausstudio , @pirattibakery , @thefullcirclecollectiveau , Newcastle Bike Workshops, Jess Hodge @resourcefulliving and @bec_bowie_ , with support from @citynewcastle.au . SAVE THE DATE for the next one: Friday 5 June! More details soon Infectiously happy reel by @storiesinmotionfilms Luscious track by @fungasband

Uncut and uncensored cooking inspired again by my upcoming talk on food waste and composting @50clydest Friday afternoon. Link in bio 👆 I really found 5 apples at Lees house with a bite out of each. 30mins later we had deliciously fragrant and caramelised stewed apple. I do love a pot on the stove on low. It’s doing its thing while I’m doing mine. A great way to rescue fruit … I would recommend staying with softer fruits like apricots and peaches. Make sure you add that good glug of water or juice. And the supermarket situation, I shop at supermarkets for sure, just being real about the fruit and veg situation there. It’s a soap box I don’t mind standing on if you’re interested… There won’t be time this Friday, it will be a fast and furious chop chop cook up and chat followed by a nourishing compost workshop. Come along on Friday!

I get in bins. I do. I get in bins and show people how they could look so very different. We absolutely can reduce our costs and environmental impact significantly by understanding and organising ‘waste.’ When teams can see their venues waste separated into resource streams, pennies drop, lights go on and for real - hearts feel lighter. It feels good to divert resources from landfill and to ‘be part of the change we want to see in the world.’ If you’d like waste at your venue to cost you less and actually become a good news story - look me up, I’m just the right the bin chicken for you 👀

Righto! A sneak peak into the flavour of my upcoming Food Waste and Composting talk @50clydest Repair Cafe this Friday night. A key way I reduce food waste is by using a permaculture principle, ‘start where you are and use what you have.’ You don’t always have to follow the recipe! Learning to sub in and out like ingredients gives you so much scope to create delicious and ‘sustainable’ flavours in your kitchen. Making pesto is the ultimate choose your own adventure and a great way to use up scrappy cheese, citrus and soft herbs. I hope you enjoy this rollicking pesto prep with my dear friend and collaborator @livecreativlee and please check the link in the bio, book in and come along for my talk. PS. The pesto was goooood and there was enough to serve 5 guests and put a jar in the fridge for later 👌

Let’s scrap scrapping scraps people!! In this talk @50clydest on Friday I’m going to dig in to: 🪏 How we minimised food waste @estabar_ keeping our food costs under control and our environmental footprint slim 👣 🪏 How I do the same in my own home - there may be snacks on offer 😉 🪏 How you can get composting - simple advice on how to turn your scraps into gold for your garden and access to great deals on composting equipment thanks to @thecompostrevolution and @citynewcastle.au Check the link in my bio, book your spot and come along, I’d love to see you there.

On the surface, being a sustainable cafe sounds easy enough. If every customer brings a Keep Cup for takeaways, we're all good, right?! Not quite! Local Newcastle hospitality educator @bec_bowie_ joined us as the speaker for our inaugural Love Local Series, hosted by ReNewy Living. Bec has a knack for making sustainability feel like second nature. Within the relaxed atmosphere of @localcustoms.social , she facilitated real conversations and shared actionable ways food venues can tread lighter on the planet. As it turns out, it's all that behind-the-scenes business stuff that makes sustainability work for the customer. We talked about: - Building strong teams and smooth operating systems, - understanding your core values to guide every decision, and - connecting with the community, like partnering with local groups for Return and Earn recycling. 🗑 You can find Bec hanging around food venues' garbage bins! She helps food venues rethink their waste streams to minimise cost and environmental impact and in turn, maximise team engagement and brand loyalty. 🎤 Catch Bec on The ReNewy Living Podcast - Episode 25 "Leading by Values for a Purposeful Workplace". Available on Apple podcasts, Spotify podcasts and You Tube (audio only). I’d love for you to support the businesses that attended the event! Their presence shows they are truly committed to taking action toward a more sustainable future. Give them a follow: @groundedbydesigns , @good.onecoffee , @50clydest , @bocados.newcastle , @wickhamboatshed @hawksnestcafe @autumnrooms Photo 1: Group photo Photo 2: Mardi Lee from ReNewy Living (left) with Bec Bowie (right) #renewyliving #localbusiness #newcastlecafes #sustainablecafes #livingsustainably #localsustainability #communityofsustainability