Local business proves hospitality can be waste-free at the World Class Cocktail Festival

The World Class Cocktail Festival has kicked off in Sydney. Hosting more than 50 of the world’s best bartenders, the festival celebrates food and cocktail culture. But this year, waste-free cocktails are also on the menu thanks to Matt Whiley — a bar consultant with a passion for sustainability.

The former British cricketer-turned-Aussie hospitality kingpin is stepping out of his usual waste-free venue, RE Bar, and taking his sustainability ethos to the festival. His goal? To prove that waste-free hospitality is not only possible, it’s also delicious.

“Food waste is not necessarily something that’s getting scraped off a plate and into the bin,” explained Whiley. “We were offered 300kg of apples a couple of days ago — they’re good apples, but the farmer can’t sell them. It could be cosmetic standards or because there’s a glut in the market, but about 25% of fruit and veggies in Australia never make it off the farm. I’m pretty sure our industry could survive on that alone.”

At RE Bar, Whiley relies on a self-created network between local hospitality sites to provide his business with ingredients that would otherwise end up in landfill. The concept is called Never Wasted, and it’s this circular economy that Whiley brings to the World Class Cocktail Festival.

During the festival, four Sydney bars on Clarence Street — The Barbershop, PS40, Old Mate’s Place and The Lobo — will use each other’s unwanted food and bar waste to create tasty, waste-free cocktails. The venues were hand-picked by Whiley to participate in the circular economy and each create one Never Wasted cocktail. Rescued ingredients include toasted coconut and lemongrass, raspberry and rocket, cucumber and coffee grinds, and pineapple skins and cores.

From a consumer point of view, Whiley wants customers to realise food waste isn’t “the disgusting thing you see in a supermarket bin. It’s actually perfect produce that usually gets put in a blender anyway — so it doesn’t matter what it looks like for a bar.”

From an industry point of view, Whiley hopes the festival will highly the benefits of Never Wasted, and encourage more venues to get on board.

“We can’t create change with one venue,” Whiley said. “To create change, you must start a community with hundreds of people involved. Then, hundreds become thousands, and it rolls out around the world. I hope the festival will provide the opportunity to spread the word.”

Whiley’s plans to upscale the Never Wasted initiative were put on hold last year because of lockdowns and covid restrictions. But Whiley says the delay has been a good thing.

“It gave us time to figure out how technology could work to run the scheme instead of constantly managing an email system.”

The tech solution is still being developed but will eventually roll out as a website with geotagging capabilities. Site members will be able to flag food waste at their venue, triggering local hospitality businesses to be notified of what’s on offer.

“I’m really motivated by community, helping people and the idea of doing the right thing,” Whiley said. “You only have to look at the news to understand how our planet is affected by climate change. If our tiny little bar can spark change within our industry, that will be pretty great.”

The World Class Cocktail Festival runs from September 9 to 18. Whiley’s Never Wasted cocktails will be available in participating venues from Tuesday 13 to Saturday September 17, 5-11 pm daily.