saved from being released into the atmosphere
About the client
Wahaca is an independent group of Mexican street food restaurants with 13 sites across the UK. They believe in serving food that doesn’t cost the earth. Using fresh and sustainably sourced ingredients and creating restaurants which are exuberantly decorated, Wahaca has revolutionised what modern Mexican food means in the UK today.
“Whatever we do, it’s always with the planet in mind. So you can enjoy your tacos knowing they won’t cost the earth.”
Wahaca is the very first single branded restaurant group signatory to the Hospitality and Food Service Agreement operated by WRAP and are committed to making a positive impact. This is why they chose Recorra as their sustainable waste management company.
35,446kg CO2
137 meals
donated to charitable causes
18 months
of fuel to power homes from food waste that could not be donated
79%
recycling rate achieved across all sites
Wahaca’s Challenge
As is common in the hospitality industry, Wahaca’s sites each produce large amounts of mixed waste including food scraps, coffee grounds and contaminated materials associated with a busy restaurant. The challenge for Wahaca is to sustainably manage their waste in a way that subscribes to the circular economy and their passion for prioritising the planet.
Contamination is the biggest challenge, but there are many other obstacles to overcome including lack of space, quick staff turnover and a fast-paced environment.
The Aims
Wahaca and Recorra aimed to achieve ambitious sustainability goals across all sites by:
- Fulfiling Wahaca’s commitment to sustainability by following best practice and the waste hierarchy.
- Introduce the most effective waste and recycling streams for Wahaca’s operations.
- Maximise recycling across all sites and reduce general waste.
- Ensure zero waste goes to landfill.
- Meet CarbonNeutral® standards.
- Minimise resource use and source materials sustainably.
Recorra’s Solutions:
Recorra supported Wahaca with a comprehensive approach to improving recycling and reducing contamination:
- Conducting regular visits to each site to observe staff and identify barriers to recycling.
- Implementing five separate recycling streams at every location, including dry mixed recycling, glass recycling, food waste, coffee grounds, and general waste.
- Providing specialised “binfrastructure” with easy-to-read signage to maximise limited space and simplify recycling.
- Delivering back-of-house training from our Sustainability Consulting team for all staff.
- Offering bespoke monthly reports on our customer portal, illustrating recycling performance and suggesting improvements.
- Performing mini waste composition audits at each site to pinpoint contamination sources and implement improvement plans.
- Running personalised launch-day training sessions for new sites.
- Appointing the most sustainable waste collector available where we manage the waste collection contract.
Services Provided
The Results
Recorra and Wahaca have had huge success together – improving their recycling rate to a high of 79% across all their sites, with their Covent Garden location even reaching 85%.
We at Recorra are very proud of our work with Wahaca, achieving a 99% successful collection rate and improving recycling rates across all of Wahaca’s restaurants through our bespoke service.
01
We introduced 5 separate recycling streams specifically chosen as the optimal choice for Wahaca. After training with our Sustainability Consultants, recycling rates improved by up to 7% in the subsequent months and we have helped them reduce their contamination rates.
02
Through our partners at Plan Zheroes, they have provided the equivalent of 137 meals to charitable causes, and food waste that could not be donated became fuel to power homes for 18 months.
03
Being certified CarbonNeutral® since 2016, Recorra help Wahaca to meet their emissions targets by processing their commercial waste locally and in accordance with The Waste Hierarchy. In total, Wahaca with Recorra have stopped 35,446 kg of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere.
04
Wahaca also sustainably procure their everyday supplies such as menus using recycled and close loop circular products as offered by our own office supplies store.
