The Merrion Hotel has introduced food waste monitoring sensors as the next step in its sustainability agenda. Working with Positive Carbon, the hotel is implementing tools that accurately measure food waste without disturbing daily routines, giving the kitchen and operation teams visibility of what is going in bin, how much of it is wasted and why.

Executive Chef Ed Cooney has been making significant strides towards sustainable kitchen processes through measures such as using a seasonal approach, introducing beehives on the rooftop of the hotel and reusing coffee grounds in compost.

Peter MacCann, General Manager of The Merrion, commented “We need robust and real-time data to understand what we are wasting and why in order to apply appropriate interventions. Positive Carbon’s food waste sensors help create visibility on food waste and we are incredibly excited to see the impact of this data on the environment and our costs.”

Positive Carbon's technology will provide the team with rigorous data and actionable insights on food waste to make the necessary changes in purchasing and preparation behaviours to achieve a net zero kitchen. The use of patented food waste sensors and food detection AI provides high quality food waste management tools for the food service industry enabling them to develop advanced waste reduction strategies and increase gross profits by 2-8%. Critically, as the sensors are autonomous, the process requires no staff interaction which allows the kitchen to do their job without any changes.

Positive Carbon’s COO Aisling Kirwan emphasised this final feature “We understand that kitchens are high intensity environments, so we have ensured that our technology has zero interference with staff to make the process of monitoring food waste as frictionless and beneficial as possible”.