Zero Waste Week, the Chester Businesses Leading the Charge #Chester Food and Drink Month

Victoria Hayes
9th September 2021

Zero Waste Week is an award winning annual awareness campaign that helps participants save money and preserve resources.

This year’s campaign takes place 6th – 10th September 2021

Zero Waste Week is raising awareness about the environmental impact of waste. Whether you’re an individual, business or organisation, we welcome you to join in and reduce the amount of waste you send to landfill.

Leading the Charge for Zero Waste In Chester is Hypha.

There is nowhere in Chester that has sustainability credentials quite like Hypha, and they even have a Michelin Green Star to prove it.
Hypha is a whole new dining experience, an epic ongoing food and drink experiment with sustainable aims interwoven through every aspect. It starts with hero ingredients being grown in Chester and surrounding areas, right through to the aim of a zero-waste kitchen. 
After such a financially challenging time for the industry, owner Nik Friar invested in a state-of-the-art composter to close the loop on all food waste (including cardboard and paper). On top of that, every stalk and stem is utilised in the most creative, innovative and delicious way – it is a truly inspiring local food and drink story. Hypha is a food lovers paradise – constantly evolving and developing each season’s tasting menu, proudly using ingredients from local suppliers, growers, and foragers. These dishes are developed with a unique approach to dining, utilising their very own fermentation lab and creative food workspace, so that every mouthful has maximum impact for the guests and minimal impact on the planet.

At Chester’s most high profile attraction, Chester Zoo, there are meticulous and hugely detailed plans in place to make it a ‘zero waste’ operation by 2030. Their sustainability values and policies are central in all their operations.   

Chester Zoo are looking at all of the waste they produce and THINKING DIFFERENTLY about it. REMOVING single use items from their supply chain, being SMARTER about what they buy and trying to figure out how they can LOVE EVERYTHING FOR LONGER,

Reducing our waste is one of the most readily accessible, measurable and achievable climate actions every one of us can take. Despite a very peculiar 18 months around the world, there are still positive changes happening. We’ve seen a huge rise in interest in Refill and Reuse as a way of life. More and more people are carrying reusable water bottles. There’s not just a popular outcry to ban things like plastic cotton buds and disposable cutlery, but there’s legislation to back it up and force the hand of those who are reluctant to change.

What’s really great is that there’s no Zero Waste model that anyone has to stick to. Zero Waste is a journey, and the goal is to reduce waste, but there are many, many ways to achieve that. There are so many different paths we can take.

It won’t happen overnight, but take a look at your business and the businesses you use and see if there’s a step you or they could take along the path to Zero Waste.

Here’s some more examples from around our city.  

Matthew and his fabulous team at Spitting Feathers have closed the loop on local produce and sustainability, whilst also remaining many steps ahead with innovation and creativity. The used grains from the brewery are a valuable feed for the pigs that provide the brewery and their pubs (The Brewery Tap in Chester and The West Kirby Tap on the Wirral) with their delicious pork.

Spitting Feathers has continued to grow and evolve into a forward-thinking brewery, producing some of the best beers in Cheshire and beyond. The art of brewing has become a thing of artisan excellence – a lesson in true, local sustainability.

At Rowton Hall, there is a fabulous kitchen garden where they grow their own organic vegetables, fruits, salad and micro-herbs. You can seriously taste the fact that so much of that natural produce is tended and nurtured by expert gardener Karl, with zero carbon footprint to deliver.  
When planning menus and preparing for the day’s service, Matt and Karl select the produce only needed for that day, creating zero waste – and the peak of perfection for his stunning dishes.

Just Footprints Chester was Chester’s first ever Zero Waste Store. Just footprints is completely packaging free where possible and its products are all organic wherever possible. Customers are able to buy a range of dried foods like rice, pasta, grains, cereals, fruit, herbs and spices all in plastic free packaging and can even be able to grind their own coffee in store.

Also on offer are plastic free toiletries, bamboo toothbrushes, toothpaste, refillable shampoo and shower gel, as well as other reusable items including water bottles, travel mugs and sandwich wraps. Just Footprints is for those seeking a plastic-free, zero-waste and greener lifestyle in Chester, North Wales and the surrounding areas. 

Others have partnered with organisations dedicated to reducing food waste. For example, Taste Cheshire member Falafel Xpress and new Coffee shop in the Garden Quarter. Somewhere Else have signed up with the Too Good to Go app.

Every day, delicious, fresh food goes to waste at cafes, restaurants, hotels, shops and manufacturers – just because it hasn’t sold in time. The Too Good To Go app lets you buy and collect this food – at a great price – so it gets eaten instead of wasted. You won’t know exactly what’s in your order until you pick it up – it’s all part of the surprise. Download the app to get started.

We hope lots of other Chester venues join these type of schemes and continue the campaign to create zero waste.

If you know of another Chester business or venue who has joined the campaign for Zero Waste or has made a great stride forward in this goal, please do get in touch with us, we’d love to feature them too!       E-mail : [email protected]

Zero Waste Week is just one of the campaigns featured as part of Chester Food and Drink month, which is organised in conjunction with We Love Good Times and kindly sponsored by The Townhouse Secret Garden, QBunk and Destination Chester. For more information about the sponsors and the Chester Food and Drink Month 2021, please head to

https://chesterfoodanddrinkmonth.co.uk