recycling in restaurants.

Hello,
This is something that has baffled us as wel,l so to address this matter we have taken things into our own hands. Plus it is something we beleive in and practice. We take our cardborad/paper/cans/glass/palstic to local drop offs daily and compost. This does get difficult at times when things pile up , but it is well worth the effort.

When it comes to caring for people and the environment can we really trust anyone but ourselves?

Thanks for the warm welcome Gary!
I am going to be curious about this thing till I know the reason. Volume, I assume. Does anyone know some one that does pick up compostable waste at least? Rumpke or some one like that might be smart to drop off compost and recycling cans or something. Not sure if they do. That is what they do in the northwest. They have large garbage cans(just like this city's big black ones)for compost, recycle, and waste. And this is at the restaurant, and bars! It is a standard, and you can actually get fined for not using them. hmmm... wish there was something we could do. Until then we can just stink our cars up with whatever we can fit, and take the stuff to recycling centers.

I know in Indiana, or at least Clarksville, the cities do not collect garbage or recyclables from any commercial business. We have to contract out our collection to private companies. We have a dumpster for our trash, and another one just for cardboard via Waste Management. It's crazy how much cardboard we go through, and even though it costs me $23 a month for the extra service, to me its well worth it not to put all that cardboard into a landfill.

We used to have people practically fight each other to pick up our cardboard, but the prices have dropped so much that it is not worth it for people to take it in for money. That is why I had to go with the extra dumpster just for cardboard. We save our cans for a gentleman that comes along every other day and picks them up for recycling as well.

I checked the Lou. Metro gov. website to see what they had to say about recycling for businesses.
This is all I could find...

http://www.louisvilleky.gov/SolidWaste/ ... ycling.htm

Not of much help to restaurants...

Thank you for whomever bumped this thread up! Just over the weekend, we were eating somewhere with the kids and my oldest (7yr old) asked why there wasn't a recycle option. I told him that was a good question and we would have to look into it. He was very into and he wants to bring his school class into it. He goes to St.Francis of Assisi and each class has an area of social awareness that they focus on. His class, the 1st grade, is focused on being kind to the earth. I was very excited about his suggestion and was getting ready to post here!

In an effort to figure out how this 1st grade class can help, I want to understand the obstacles of recycling. Is it manpower? Is it storage of recyclables? Is it cost?

Jessica

From what I understand, part of the problem is money. I know that some restaurants have been fighting for this for awhile. I kind of wish that someone in the city would offer to do this privately. A pick-up truck or two could probably handle doing small areas of the city at a time on a one to two week rotation. As a restaurant owner, I would happily pay a small fee to have my recycling picked up, and if enough restaurants were willing, someone might be able to make some money doing this.

Originally, the city said they would try to begin an experimental recycling program for restaurants last fall, and then the hurricane hit, so they postponed it to March. Then the ice storm hit so it got pushed back again. Now the flooding... So who knows when the money will become available? It's pretty frustrating.

The Charlestown Pizza Company along with the rest of Charlestown does not have the option of curbside pick up for our recyclables, but we do recycle. We like many concerned independents take the time and effort to load up our vehicles and take our recyclables to our local center. Additionally, all of our carry out containers are recyclable

On this note, Foam Fabricators in New Albany's industrial park recycles styrofoam containers and packing peanuts, there is a recycling cage outside of the business.

shawn

While this topic is active again, I'll take a moment to state that under a Dr. Nimbus Couzin administration (the mayoral election is Nov. 4, 2010) we will have an extensive green energy policy. Recycling for all - both businesses and homes - will be part of that policy. When you think about it, the city is picking up the material anyway, the only difference is it currently goes into black bins and gets tossed into the landfill. Some of the materials have value, and it seems kind of silly to not be recycling them.

The current system simply doesn't make much sense. But again, there are quite a few current systems that don't make much sense. That's why I'm running for mayor. To clean things up (pun intended).

Cheers!

On a side, but related, note:

Does anyone know what the requirements are to be "EcoSteward Certified"? We picked up a copy of the Louisville "GreenList" free publication at Carly Rae's last night and this was the first time I'd seen it. Great idea, but I had to wonder a little sceptically if you had to buy from Creation Gardens to be on the list, or if anyone who meets certain requirements can be "certified" . If purchasing from Creation is necessary, non-industry folks wouldn't get the connection and it'd be a bit misleading...

Deb

On a side, but related, note:

Does anyone know what the requirements are to be "EcoSteward Certified"? We picked up a copy of the Louisville "GreenList" free publication at Carly Rae's last night and this was the first time I'd seen it. Great idea, but I had to wonder a little sceptically if you had to buy from Creation Gardens to be on the list, or if anyone who meets certain requirements can be "certified" . If purchasing from Creation is necessary, non-industry folks wouldn't get the connection and it'd be a bit misleading...

Deb

Deb, thanks for bringing this up. I'll be glad to clarify the Ecosteward Program, as Creation Gardens Sustainability Director. Firstly, you do NOT have to be a customer of Creation Gardens to be Ecosteward Certified. And I should change the term "certified" as it may not the best term, considering there is no formal rating system to certify against. An Ecosteward restaurant or business is one that demonstrates sustainability is at the core of their business and that over time they are committed to doing more and more to reduce their energy, water and carbon footprint. The Ecosteward marketing pieces, such as the decals, the directories, etc are simply a means for businesses to communicate that they share that commitment with consumers and vice versa giving conscious consumers a helping hand in matching their dollars with their values. For all Creation Gardens customers, I perform a free eco-evaluation, focusing primarily on methods to reduce the restaurants energy and water usage, thus saving them money and helping the environment. Using compostable take out containers and green seal cleaning solutions for example are on top of the behind the scenes efforts participating Ecosteward restaurants take part in, such as seeking LEED certification or purchasing carbon offset credits.

Nothing would make me happier than adding more restaurants to the Ecosteward list as it creates more awareness and pushes us toward a more sustainable foodservice industry. All a restaurant has to do to join the list or receive a decal is to contact me and demonstrate their commitment to sustainability. I believe Creation Gardens has some of the best products and prices for green restaurant supplies in town and would be happy to sell to more restaurants, however my commitment to the planet and building a local and sustainable economy takes precedent over increasing sales.

Hope this helps. And I should mention lastly that Ecosteward is not meant to muddy the waters or add confusion in the market as to what it means to be green. Ultimately it is my hope Ecosteward will act as a stepping stone toward more national and sophisticated means of defining sustainability such as US Green Building Council's LEED certification or the Green Restaurant Association endorsement.

we were left w a nasty note from the pick up guys.

Anyway, if this was more than a year ago you might try sneaking the stuff out back again. Maybe the Frankfort Avenue restaurant community could also try having a talk with Tina Ward-Pugh. Invite me along if you do it, and I'll come with notebook in hand.
.

I spoke w/ Tina Ward-Pugh on Sunday at the Clifton Harvest Festival about this. She said it was something she was working on for the restaurants and businesses along the Frankfort Ave corridor for the next meeting.
I would encourage other business in the 9th District to contact Tina Ward Pugh
( http://www.louisvilleky.gov/MetroCouncil/Members/09/ )
or their respective councilpersons know they support business recycling.

PS. If you are not sure who your councilperson is type in your address here:
http://www.lojic.org/mylouisville/viewer.htm

Hope this helps. And I should mention lastly that Ecosteward is not meant to muddy the waters or add confusion in the market as to what it means to be green. Ultimately it is my hope Ecosteward will act as a stepping stone toward more national and sophisticated means of defining sustainability such as US Green Building Council's LEED certification or the Green Restaurant Association endorsement.

Michael,
I find it interesting you mention LEED certification. I've read the information and obviously following their ideas will help make a building much more energy efficient. My problem is why should a company spend the money to get the actual certification? From talking to some people in the industry it's quite expensive to get the actual certification because the time and money you have to spend writing the required documentation as well as the money you have to spend to have an independent auditor verify that the building meets the criteria. Getting certified doesn't save you any more money than doing the energy conservation measures they recommend so why should a business spend the extra money? I'm not sure the PR for getting the certification is worth the cost. Of course metro government gets their buildings certified (spending our money to do it) but I don't see where it's really worth it.

I believe Jessica H hit the nail on the head up-thread. The main problem is money.

Disclaimer: I worked for a "waste management" company in a previous life.

The waste stream contains stuff that can bring economic returns, such as glass and aluminum, but there is much, much more in that same waste stream that's expensive to recycle like paper and organic waste.

Recycled paper is notorious for how fickle the market is. First, there is competition with wood pulp "virgin" paper products which has driven the price way down. Then, consider the situation that newspapers and magazines are in. Less advertising, fewer pages. This results in overcapacity less demand for the raw product.

As for compostable waste, I believe the main problem is recyclers would need to get clean organic waste. As far as restaurants go, separating this from any paper waste would be costly, and the resulting output would be relatively small.

Add to this the cost of trucking the recyclables including fuel, labor and a plant to process all of this, and it's really difficult to make it economically feasible, let alone carbon neutral. Bottom line is if a municipality were to process residential and commercial waste there would definitely be non-trivial tax increases to cover the costs. Not a popular idea in the current economic climate.

This is not to say that recycling is a bad thing for businesses to take up on their own. There are plenty of customers (including me) who value the effort. The easiest way for a business, restaurant or otherwise, to help the environment is to cut down the waste on the front end of the process. Things like buying more paper products made from recycled paper, reasonable serving sizes and just plain being less wasteful in the preparation process helps a great deal. I recently went into a new local takeout place and ordered a toasted bagel and with cream cheese. Without asking they wrapped the bagel in wax paper, then foil, then put it in a paper bag. Is all of that packaging really necessary, considering it will just be tossed into the trash in a few minutes?