Whitbread has introduced a new recycling scheme across 300 of its hotels and restaurants this year.
The firm will use anaerobic digestion recycling to break down waste, which is then transformed into electricity and biofertiliser.
Whitbread hopes to reduce carbon emissions by around 2,000 tonnes per year following the introduction of the programme.
Richard Barker, chief executive of BiogenGreenfinch, the firm that will turn the waste into renewable energy, praised the company for the move.
He said: "Anaerobic digestion is the greenest win for the commercial food industry.
"We applaud Whitbread for leading the way in its sector in diverting food waste from landfill and seeing it instead as a resource to create renewable energy."
From February 2012, Whitbread aims to send 80 per cent of its waste to a new recycling site instead of landfill.
The hotel and restaurant operator is the first in the UK to implement anaerobic digestion recycling.
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the recycling industry includes; elevators – bucket elevators – valves