Widespread Recycling in Local Restaurants to Reduce Waste

Abstract

Widespread recycling and composting is uncommon in restaurants; everything used is thrown into the garbage, which usually ends up in a landfill. Recycling reduces the amount of waste as well as provides raw material for making new products. Composting naturally increases the nutrient content in soil and reduces greenhouse emissions from landfills. Restaurants in this study produce an average of 30 tons per year of garbage that ends up in a landfill. For three consecutive days the garbage from each of four restaurants was sorted into plastics, metals, glass, paper products, food and other waste. The average percent amount for each component was 5%, 4%, 3%, 25%, 15%, and 18% respectively. Composting food and paper products would decrease the amount of waste added to landfills each year to only 6 tons, which represents a 500% reduction in total landfill accumulation each year. Recycling and composting represents a small, but important step in reducing emissions and protecting the environment.