The Star is committed to long term food waste reduction across all of our venues. Food waste including preparation, food loss and plate waste has been considered a material concern from the inception of The Star’s first Sustainability Strategy.  

We’ve the ability to influence and reduce food waste through process improvement, training and management practices and recognise the upstream and downstream environmental, social and economic impacts food waste creates. We also acknowledge that overtime food waste has increased in its importance to our stakeholders, team members and guests and we are committed to working across our venues and across our industry to reduce food waste generation.   

The Star Sydney is working towards diverting 100% of food waste from landfill. 

The Star Sydney first introduced a collection program for food waste in 2013 to ensure that food waste wasn’t landfilled, it was processed through a dedicated food waste plant to create green energy and fertiliser. Since 2013, monthly tonnages have been monitored, measured and reported.  

We continue to explore onsite organics and food waste processing technologies that further minimise environmental impact and work with industry to share learnings.  

The Star has introduced a number of programs and processes across our properties to minimise food waste: 

• All teams handling food are appropriately trained on inventory management techniques 
• Practising good stock control through efficient ordering, stock rotation and ensuring stored food is clearly labelled with ‘best before’ or ‘use by’ dates.  
• Incorporating ingredients across multiple outlets and different dishes to maximise efficiencies  

• Centralised kitchen operations support in accounting for, measuring and managing food loss and waste 
• A large portion of our vegetables and protein purchased is preprepared to minimise waste  
• Food waste from spoilage is closely tracked, reported, and reviewed by kitchens to future minimise operational waste 
• Our Harvest and Event buffets have significantly reduced the amount of food typically wasted by buffet-style dining through moderating the amount of food displayed at any one time and offering more chef delivered buffet experiences where guests can choose the portion sizes   
• We work closely with our food rescue partners Oz Harvest, Second Bite and Foodbank to redistribute food over-prescribed from venues or events  

• Sizing our crockery including plates and bowls appropriate to the food offerings across all team member dining rooms 
• We continue to educate our team members on healthy eating choices and portion sizes in our team member dining rooms to reduce food plate waste and to support health and wellbeing 
• We understand our suppliers can reduce food waste significantly and impact the embedded carbon and distance travelled in the produce we buy. We promote innovation in our supply chain and within The Star’s Supplier Code of Conduct expect our suppliers will: 
• Identify, control, and where possible, minimise adverse environmental impacts arising from its operations, products or services 
• Prevent pollution, minimise waste and improve resource use efficiency 

• Proactively and collaboratively work with their suppliers to improve their performance and bring them to work in line with our Code of Conduct 

Managing food waste case study:  

Reusing Waste Oyster Shells to Improve Ecology with Oceanwatch Australia