Optimizing Food Waste In Restaurants And QSRs Through Circular Economy Strategies

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-756-9_17How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Circular Economy; Food Waste; Restaurants; Quick Service Restaurants; Sustainable Urban Systems

Abstract

One of the major challenges that urban Indian restaurants and QSRs are facing these days with regard to sustainability is the growing menace of food wastage. Food wastage gives rise to financial loss, inefficient resource utilization, and also causes harm to the environment. The UN report of 2021 also states that the hospitality sector is responsible for nearly a quarter of the total food wastes. Yet, CE (Circular Economy) practices have not been fully embraced by many Indian hospitality organizations. This research paper examines how food waste is generated in the urban restaurants and QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants) in Pune, while assessing the possible operational and behavioral factors that may influence the effectiveness of potential CE interventions. A mixed-method approach has been adopted, comprising surveys, interviews, food waste audits, and a detailed literature review has been carried for procurement, storage, preparation, and consumption is reviewed. The food redistribution, composting, and digital monitoring systems are some of the CE-based solutions that are assessed. In this paper the authors have studied barriers and institutional constraints to propose enabling factors in the form of digital tools, partnerships, and supportive policy frameworks.

The study, aims to develop systems-level integration of circular economy principles by interlinking operational efficiency, technology use, and multi-stakeholder collaboration in the reduction of food waste and optimization of resource flow. The findings have given insights for practical recommendations for improving sustainable food service practices in Indian cities in line with SDG 12.3. (Consumption & Production).

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Viraja Bhat
AU  - Atharva Kelkar
AU  - Ruhi Gore
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/31
TI  - Optimizing Food Waste In Restaurants And QSRs Through Circular Economy Strategies
BT  - Proceedings of the Conference on Bioengineering for Global Health (SYMRESEARCH 2.0 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 241
EP  - 250
SN  - 2468-5747
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-756-9_17
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-756-9_17
ID  - Bhat2026
ER  -