Restaurants
2 min read
By Pedro Carreira
Updated 25 June 2026
Kitchen incubators (shared commercial kitchens) serve multiple food businesses generating concentrated waste.
Challenges: multiple tenants sharing bins, variable waste volumes, diverse waste types, and contamination from different cuisines. Provide clearly labelled four-stream bins, include waste costs in tenancy, and conduct monthly contamination audits.
Monthly waste: $500–1,500 for a 10-kitchen facility.
Key Numbers
- Monthly waste, 10-kitchen facility: $500–1,500
- Commingled contamination (Victoria): about 12%
- Landfill levy (metro 2025–26): $169.79/tonne
What You Need to Know
A shared kitchen multiplies every waste problem: many tenants on one set of bins, swinging daily volumes, and contamination from cuisines that sort waste differently. With Victorian commingled streams running around 12% contamination, a multi-tenant kitchen sits well above that risk unless sorting is engineered in.
- Four-stream bins, clearly labelled — remove the guesswork for rotating tenants.
- Waste built into tenancy — predictable cost recovery across variable users.
- Monthly contamination audits — catch the tenant or stream driving the problem early.
- Cost benchmark — $500–1,500 per month for a 10-kitchen facility.
Separating food organics from general waste reflects Victoria's FOGO (Food Organics Garden Organics) Policy, and keeps levy-exposed general waste — charged at $169.79/tonne in metro Melbourne — to a minimum. As an independent broker, Bundle Waste audits the shared facility's invoices for free and compares a network of providers on bin mix and collection frequency, paid only from the savings — up to 30%.
Related Resources
Related Questions
What waste does a restaurant generate and how should it be managed?+
Melbourne restaurants generate: food waste (40–60%), cardboard (15–25%), glass (10–15%), recycling (5–10%), cooking oil (3–5%), general waste (10–20%). A 100-cover restaurant generates 500–800kg/week. Food waste composting can divert up to 60% from landfill and save $100–300/month.
What waste management do bakeries need?+
Bakeries generate: ingredient packaging (20–30%), food waste (25–35%), cardboard (15–20%), plastic wrap (10–15%), general waste (10–15%). Mid-size bakery: $200–500/month. Food waste composting saves vs landfill. Used cooking oil collection typically free.
How should commercial bakeries with retail manage waste?+
Dual streams: Production — flour bags, ingredients, food waste, oil. Retail — customer packaging, display waste. Separate systems prevent cross-contamination. Donate unsold product to OzHarvest (free, tax deductible). Monthly cost: $300–700.
How can restaurants reduce food waste?+
Strategies: track waste by type, menu engineering for whole ingredients, portion control, FIFO rotation, specials for near-expiry items, donate surplus to OzHarvest (free, tax deductible), staff meals. Reducing waste 20% saves $500–2,000/month in food costs.
How should I dispose of cooking oil?+
Used cooking oil: collected by licensed recyclers, typically free for 200L+ quantities; some pay $0.10–0.30/litre. Store in sealed containers in bunded area. Never pour down drains. Recycled oil becomes biodiesel or animal feed.
See exactly what you are overpaying
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Updated 25 June 2026
