Silo: The inspirational story behind the UK’s first zero-waste restaurant

Silo in Brighton has pioneered zero waste dining in the UK – centred around using healthy ingredients in their entirety, being intuitive in their approach to creating meals, cutting out food miles, reusing wherever possible and eliminating waste.

Launched in 2014, Silo, housed in an industrial-style building in Brigton’s North Laine area, accommodates a restaurant, bakery, coffee house and brewery all in one. Silo’s founder, owner and head chef Douglas McMaster refers to the restaurant as “a pre-industrial food system that generates zero waste”.

Silo recycles all its waste. It has an in-house compost machine which processes all of its food scraps. Supplies are delivered in reusable containers. Ingredients are supplied directly from, mainly, local farmers and producers – cutting out all middlemen. Flour for the restaurant’s bread is milled on site. And alcohol is brewed in the basement. The mushrooms served up on the menu are even grown on coffee grounds on…