Restaurants, buffets and caterers looking to reduce food waste now have a new tool available: AI-powered trash bins.
Companies such as Leanpath, Winnow Solutions and Orbisc offer high-tech bins equipped with smart cameras, scales and, in some cases, touchscreens. These systems collect detailed information about the type of food being thrown out, down to whether it’s cooked or chopped.
The aim is to help the industry stop simply throwing away billions of dollars’ worth of food and reduce a significant source of greenhouse gases.
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, 1.05 billion tonnes of food was wasted worldwide in 2022, with spoilage generating almost five times the emissions of the aviation sector. Nearly a third of that waste was caused by the foodservice industry, which threw out 290 million tonnes.
“When we first started, food waste was accepted as a normal part of business,” says Leanpath CEO Andrew Shakman, who founded the company in 2004. “It was the elephant in the kitchen. People just thought they had to throw food away, and that’s the reality, and no one was particularly worried about it. And it was costing them a lot of money.”
LeanPath’s waste-tracking technology is used in more than 4,000 kitchens, including Google offices, Marriott hotels and university dining facilities. The company’s trackers have scales and touchscreens where chefs select details such as the type of food, the reason for waste and the time of day. Some models use smart cameras to help employees visualize the accumulation of wasted food. The company estimates that it saved 15 million meals from waste last year and prevented 55,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Dutch startup Orbisk’s waste calculator is being tested on two Carnival cruise ships after the operator found that low-tech solutions like smaller plates at buffets didn’t cut waste that much: Carnival cut food waste across its fleets by 45% between 2019 and 2024, but it required cumbersome self-tracking methods to do so.
“We’ve been able to stay at 45 percent consistently for the last five or six months, but we’re plateauing again,” said Sharqi Badenhorst, Carnival’s general manager of food operations. “That’s why we’re looking at Aubisque and putting new ways in place to try to improve this a little bit more.”
Aubisque’s technology uses cameras and scales to detect the types of food that end up in the trash, uncovering previously hidden waste-reduction opportunities. For example, in the first two months of using Aubisque, Carnival noticed that its Bonsai sushi restaurant was wasting a lot of cucumbers because the chefs were mainly using the outer parts of the cucumbers in their dishes. Carnival was also shocked by the number of photos of leftover fries at its burger bar, which led it to reconsider the size of its serving scoops.
AI-driven technology can only go so far—Carnival’s Badenhorst said the system isn’t yet smart enough to tell the difference between steak cuts—but knowing which beef dishes customers and chefs are tossing in the trash could lead to cost savings for restaurants.
And these systems wouldn’t help establishments that rely heavily on takeaway customers, given how much waste is generated after the food leaves the kitchen: Dana Gunders, executive director of the US nonprofit ReFED, says data shows that 70% of foodservice waste comes from customers leaving food they’ve been served or picked up at buffets.
Other challenges relate to complexity and cost. An AI-driven waste management system requires extra work from chefs and kitchen managers. And for smaller restaurants, the technology is a big investment. Orbisk’s system can cost between $2,000 and $8,000 a year, depending on a customer’s needs. Winnow charges an optional monthly fee but wouldn’t disclose price ranges, and it offers a cheaper tablet-only solution for smaller kitchens. Leanpath declined to comment on pricing.
Ultimately, those in the kitchen may be the biggest advocates of technologies that reduce food waste — after all, chefs will tell you there’s nothing more satisfying than seeing a clean plate.
“Chefs don’t want to throw food away; they want to have confidence that the food they’ve made will actually end up on a plate,” says Hamish Forbes, senior analyst at the NGO’s Waste and Resource Action Programme. “AI is a great way to make that first step less burdensome.”
