Fighting Waste at the Bar
How to reduce the environmental impact of our drinks
30 Jan 2025
The beverage part of the food and beverage industry can make a significant contribution to excess food waste if not managed effectively. A new project, Zero-Waste Bar, launched by the Porto Protocol Foundation and Sustainable Wine Solutions in partnership, aims to facilitate knowledge exchange, promote best practices and mobilize collective action among wine producers, distributors and consumers.

“Food waste is a global tragedy.” So says Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), continuing: “Millions are going hungry every day as food is wasted across the world. Not only is this a major development issue, but the impacts of such unnecessary waste are causing substantial costs to the climate and nature.”
If food waste were a country, it would be the third-biggest greenhouse gas emitter globally. We desperately need to tackle food waste and make it an issue of the past as part of the transition to a sustainable food system. At a global level, 28% of food waste comes from the food service industry, compared to 12% from retail. Typical sources of food waste in the HoReCa (hotels, restaurants and catering) sector include oversized portions, extensive menu choices and meals served mistakenly or delayed.

Don’t forget the drinks
The beverage part of the food and beverage industry can also make a significant contribution to excess food waste if not managed effectively. Additionally, single-use, disposable items such as straws, stirrers, napkins and packaging add to waste generation, especially in fast-paced hospitality settings. These items often find their way to landfill or become litter, posing environmental threats. Food waste comes from unused or expired beverage inventory caused by overstocking, shifts in consumer preferences or inadequate inventory management practices. This includes cocktail ingredients, slow-moving draught products and opened wine bottles.
Wine, spirits and beer are energy- and resource-intensive to produce. The extraction and processing of these resources contributes to environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas emissions and habitat destruction. If the beverage industry can address the challenge of waste, it will significantly shrink its environmental impact.
The Zero-Waste Bar project
A new project, Zero-Waste Bar, launched by the Porto Protocol Foundation and Sustainable Wine Solutions in partnership, aims to facilitate knowledge exchange, promote best practices and mobilize collective action among wine producers, distributors and consumers.
The Porto Protocol Foundation is a global movement whose mission is to share practical knowledge to empower the wine industry to act to mitigate climate change and promote sustainability. It aims to achieve systemic change and create a ripple effect that extends far beyond the wine industry through more than 250 members, spread across five continents, 20 countries and the entire wine value chain.
Sustainable Wine Solutions began its journey at London’s Borough Market in 2002 and is working towards a circular economy: making businesses and society more self–sufficient by driving down waste and the consumption of finite resources. It campaigns to reduce packaging, reuse bottles and kegs and recycle as a last resort.

Launching Zero-Waste Bar
This project kicked off at a launch event on October 15, 2024, during a conference taking place in London, Sustainability in Drinks, in which both organizations participated.
Naturally the presentation took place at a bar, the Coach Makers Arms pub in Marylebone.
Here the organizers created an example of a zero-waste bar, in line with the practices that will be outlined in their educational program and guide. For a few hours, dozens of different people from different nationalities, all connected to the wine and spirits world, got to experience first-hand how it’s possible to enjoy a glass of wine and or spirits while generating minimal waste and travel miles. Wine served from reusable kegs and refillable bottles, no-straw cocktails, reusable glasses, spirits produced from second-life citrus, 100% natural drinks free from artificial colors, local lager and British sparkling wine were a few of the “messages in a bottle.”
A number of partnerships contributed to the success of the event: with the Sustainable Restaurant Association, as well as Drink Forgotten, East London Liquor Company, Pillars, Lucky Saint and Chalk & Lees.
The Porto Protocol Foundation and Sustainable Wine Solutions are continuing their work to show bars in the UK and beyond how consumers can enjoy a cocktail or a glass of wine with a low environmental impact.
Zero-Waste Bar is funded by Negroni Week, a fundraising initiative presented by Imbibe and Campari and realized in collaboration with Slow Food.

Message in a bottle
Porto Protocol also works with the Slow Wine Coalition to raise awareness among producers and the public about wine packaging and ways to reduce the impact of packaging (and thus the waste associated with the consumption of this beverage).
Specifically, during the Slow Wine Fair in Bologna (Italy), Slow Food will present a toolkit on primary packaging created from the Porto Protocol’s Unpacking Wine Guide. Marta Mendonça and Cristina Crava of Porto Protocol will participate in two conferences dedicated to promoting sustainable packaging. They will analyze the key challenges around sustainability, explore innovations in materials, and discuss strategies for reducing environmental impact. Looking ahead to the future, they’ll consider how the wine sector is responding to consumer demand and regulations to build a more circular and conscientious economy.
Here the info to participate to the online one: https://slowinefair.slowfood.it/en/event/message-in-a-bottle-wine-packaging-trends-in-europe/
Paola Nano
Sources:
Blog & news
Contact Us
Get in touch
Do you have any questions or comments for our team? Don’t hesitate to get in touch!