Circular Kitchens is an emerging movement in the hospitality sector, driven by conscious people, food establishments, and their suppliers who believe that our food and drinks should be plastic-free, organic or ecological by reputation (free from synthetic chemicals), as local, regional and seasonal as possible, ethical, and zero waste.
We have developed a shared brand and certification called Circular Kitchens for recognising and promoting exceptional restaurants including take-aways, food-trucks, cafes, bars, and pubs. We make it easy to become circular with the support of our curated Guides and enabling platform designed to help restaurants align to our 4 principles of a Circular Kitchen:
- Plastic-Free
- Organic/Ecological
- Regional/Ethical
- Zero Waste
So, what does “circular” mean?
A circular economy is the future!
Transforming our economy into a circular model means eliminating waste & pollution and allowing for a fully regenerative economic and eco-industrial system to emerge. Products and materials are kept in-use for as long as possible through sharing and re-using, refurbishment and up-cycling. Non-biodegradable materials are recycled when a product is at end-of-life, and any items that cannot be reused or effectively recycled, such as plastics, are be replaced with sustainable alternatives (biodegradable or recyclable at curb-side).
A fully circular economy relies on an agricultural system that produces food in a manner that regenerates and maintains soil health and biodiversity, and the return of biological material (including natural textiles and food waste) to the soil as organic fertiliser (what farmers call ‘black-gold’ – the source of food for all living beings including us humans) or conversion to energy for lighting and heating/cooling.
A circular food system begins on farms that do not use synthetic chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides that are bad for the soil and bad for human health. These farms are more diverse than conventional monoculture farms and the produce is incomparably more tasty than conventional monoculture farming.
To really understand what regenerative farming is all about we strongly recommend you watch a documentary called “The biggest little farm” on Netflix or other streaming platforms.
Such organic/ecological farms can produce at a similar yield than conventional monoculture farms when food waste is taken into consideration (our current global food and bev sector wastes about 30-40% of the food we grow and produce). Food waste is minimised by serving local and regional markets through much shorter value-chains that also happen to emit less carbon into the atmosphere and do not rely on plastic packaging.
This requires a very different regional food system than our current globalised food system, connecting regenerative (organic/ecological) farms more directly with local and regional markets. One of our missions at Circular Kitchens is to do just that, through our Cooperative Buying Platform and our CK Marketplace.
Conscious consumers and the hospitality sector can play a critical role in giving rise to an ecological, circular regional food system here in the UK. Our region is large and diverse, stretching from the UK to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. We are blessed with a lush and fertile region that produces a wide variety of agricultural produce, starting right here in the UK.
As international development academics and professionals, we believe more inclusive, ecological, and circular regional food systems everywhere would also significantly tackle poverty in regions all over the world that import chemical-dependent food at the expense of local and regional farmers. Farmers everywhere from Kent to Calcutta have been indebted and driven to bankruptcy by the failed promise of global commodity markets and chemical-dependent farming models.
Our purpose at Circular Kitchens is to help restaurants align to the 4 principles of circularity within their existing cost structure and to make it easy for people to find great food that aligns with our shared values.
