If you’ve ever been on a cruise ship, you’ve probably marveled at the overflowing cornucopia of spectacle that is the cruise ship buffet. At the same time, you probably also wondered about the other end of the table. What happens to all that food that doesn’t get eaten? Spoiler alert: it doesn’t get lost – at least, not in the way you might think.
Cruise ships like Royal Caribbean Sea icon — a behemoth that can accommodate nearly 10,000 guests, according to the WSJ — produces an absurd amount of food every day, from 4,000 lobster tails to 40,000 desserts. And even though cruise ship passengers throw away a staggering amount of food in buffet style, it turns out that their eyes are still bigger than their stomachs, leaving a massive and alarming amount of food wasted on board.
To solve this problem, cruise lines have come up with some pretty creative strategies to reduce waste. Buffet dishes are carefully measured before being served, and uneaten food is then weighed and recorded in order to adjust portion sizes for future servings. The remaining waste? It’s not enough to throw it away. Instead, it embarks on an adventure of its own: through food grinders, downspouts and into a system known as microwave-assisted pyrolysis. This process dries leftover food, turning it into hamster food-like pellets that the ship can use as fuel. From the start of 2024, this energy could power small parts of the ship, such as the water park, but with only 200 kilowatts, it is a drop in the ocean for ships which need tens of thousands of kilowatts per day to operate.
Exactly how much food do cruise ships waste?
While a promising idea, the scale of these efforts makes little difference to the larger problem. In 2022, Royal Caribbean reported generating more than 53,655 cubic meters of food waste. To put things into perspective, that’s enough to fill 14 Olympic-sized swimming pools with compressed waste. So what gives with all this waste?
Well, strict buffet regulations are a big part of the problem: once food is taken out, it can’t be returned to the kitchen and will have to be thrown out within four hours if it’s not eaten, even if it’s not consumed. ‘they were not eaten. touch. And don’t even get us started on the sinister rumors that so much ice cream is being taken out of freezers for impromptu ice cream parties.
However, progress is being made. Since 2019, the company has reduced food waste by 24% and hopes to achieve a 50% reduction by 2025. Time will tell if that’s enough to make a significant impact, but until then, the cruise buffet remains a floating feast of trash. Let’s hope that progress catches up with the excesses, because on the high seas, every bite counts.