In the race to curb carbon emissions and meet climate goals, hotels are turning to artificial intelligence, smaller plates, and even insect larvae, to keep food out of landfills.

At Radisson’s net zero hotel in Manchester, a smart bin weighs discarded food and calculates the resulting CO2 emissions. The eSmiley system tracks everything from guest plate scraps to vegetable peels in the kitchen.

“So we can be smarter about buffet waste. We will learn from that,” said Inge Huijbrechts, Radisson’s Chief Sustainability Officer, during a tour of the Manchester property. “The chefs will analyze it. And then they will adjust. It’s already led to double-digit food waste reduction.”

When food is wasted, all the resources used to produce it — water, land, energy, labor and capital — are also wasted. Reducing it offers one of the most immediate ways to cut emissions while also saving money.

A food scale uses AI to measure food waste and conver