Does Your Restaurant Compost?

A recent article in the Washing Post discussed restaurants’ latest efforts at becoming increasingly green. Many restaurants nationwide are no longer discarding food scraps into the trash, but instead they are going green by composting. The restaurants dispose of food scraps into separate food waste containers or bins, and then dump the scraps into a compost pile on their property.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, food scraps account for some 13 percent, or 32 million tons, of the total garbage generated nationwide. Of that 32 million tons, less than 3 percent is composted, with the remainder discarded in incinerators and landfills. The food waste that languishes in landfills produces methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Although beneficial to the environment, composting does bring on its own set of challenges. For starters it may be difficult to find a compost hauler in your area. Not to mention your neighbors may not appreciate the odors produced by your compost, nor the rodents and bugs it may attract.

Plus, there would be the extra costs associated with having someone remove the compost material from your restaurant. However you may be able to offset these additional costs by renegotiating with your existing/traditional waste removal service, as the overall amount of waste they remove should decrease.