Composting methods at hotels and restaurants

Behind the scenes descriptions of food handling operations at commercial kitchens provide valuable lessons for successful implementation of programs.

AS MORE commercial places such as restaurants and hotels gain experience in composting food residuals, project results continually improve. "Somehow I've become the garbage guru," says David Stout, Resident Manager of the Grand Hotel located on Mackinac Island, Michigan, where food prep and plate scraps are separated for composting. They also end up composting plenty of paper products like napkins, paper towels, and cups. "But with the economic incentive, it's crazy not to separate," says Stout. The city charges a premium to take waste off the island. Aside from the hauling charge, there is no fee for recyclables, compostables are $1.50 per bag, and trash is $4.00 per bag. A "bag," or bin, is approximately 33 gallons. "In comparison to the landfill, we are saving money," says Stout.

At the Grand Hotel, which averages 750 guests each night, compostables are collected in about two dozen bins. These are transported by truck to the composting site and then returned to the hotel. Four employees manage the materials handling, rinsing the bins and returning them to the kitchen areas. They also separate recyclables, compostables and trash at the loading dock. "While it is labor intensive to sort at the dock, it pays off overall," says Stout.

Also participating in composting on Mackinac Island is the Village Inn Restaurant, a steak and chop house, featuring the Great Lakes white fish. All food, including bones, egg shells and vegetative residuals, napkins, paper place mats and other soiled paper are separated at each work station for composting. "The more that we can put into the compostables bag, the better," says owner Ron Dufina. Each work station has two sorts, compostables and trash.

Organics are composted at a publicly owned facility. The three-sort collection is offered to all commercial businesses and island residents. Approximately 25 restaurants and nine hotels participate. The finished composted is used as a soil amendment and sold to community residents.

FROM WAIKIKI TO HOUSTON

In Hawaii, where recovery of food residuals is required, over 130 commercial businesses - including 11 hotels and resorts separate food prep residuals and plate scraps for transport to Unisyn Biowaste Technology. "It's not hard at all," says Jeff Wind, chef at the Hyatt in Waikiki. "It's just more time consuming having to separate everything." Two years ago, they began a three-sort system: glass, corrugated cardboard, and wet waste (food and soiled papers). The glass and corrugated are recycled. At the Unisyn plant, organics are converted to compost, after methane is recovered through anaerobic digestion.

In 1994, when Jimmy Mitchell became executive chef at the Rainbow Lodge in Houston, Texas, he allocated part of the Lodge's two-acre site for a kitchen garden. Out of that grew a vision to complete the cycle and compost. Vegetables, leaves, grass, and soiled cardboard and paper are layered in the compost piles and turned regularly. The finished product is returned to the organic garden where Mitchell grows tomatoes, eggplant, okra, corn, and herbs. Mitchell has initiated a partnership with Urban Harvest, a consortium of local organic growers, and is asking other chefs in Houston to join in a cooperative effort.

The New York Hospital Medical Center in Queens has been composting in seven worm wigwams on site for over a year. "It's really working out well," says Bill Kelly, executive chef. "We only put prepatient materials into the wigwam." That includes primarily vegetative prep residuals. One employee, a porter, is responsible for filtering out any contaminants. The compostables are contained in 20gallon bins, with about two being filled each week. The worms, however, are fed everyday, rotating among the seven wigwams.

A few months ago, the Hospital began separating post patient food in yellow containers. About 500 pounds a week are collected and taken to the New York Hospital Medical Center in Flushing to be composted in a Green Mountain Technologies vessel. "We're still just testing this," says Kelly.

ROUTINE TASKS

At Perry Restaurant Group in Burlington, Vermont, an eight-restaurant chain, three stores have been composting for about eight years, with another that started separating organics for composting recently. "Now it's just a day-to-day thing," says Rod Raywinkel, corporate chef. "It just kind of happens." Perry's serves steak and seafood to about 100,000 dinner patrons at each restaurant annually.

Employees separate the compostables, which includes food and a few small paper cups used on the plates, into two bins, one for compostables and one for trash. "It definitely requires training and follow-up from the manager about what goes in the composting bin," says Raywinkel. "In this business, turnover in the dishwashing department means the general manager has to do a lot of individual training." Compostables are collected in 10-gallon containers and then dumped outside into 96-gallon totes. The local hauler, who lines and cleans the totes, takes the organics to Intervale - also in Burlington, for composting. The company is committed to the program, and right now, according to Raywinkel, "probably breaks even" economically.

"It wasn't a big deal to train employees, "says John Teichmiller, part owner of Norwood Pines located in Minocqua, Wisconsin. "It was relatively simple." Teichmiller and the head cook trained the 30 employees to separate organics, which include prep residual and plate scraps. Aside from the traditional recyclables, employees use a two-sort system, compostables and trash.

The restaurant daily generates about two 55-gallon cans of compostables and about one-half a can of trash, which is mostly plastic. "It's about four to one, compostables to trash," says Teichmiller. Compostable cans are lined with a degradable plastic bag provided by Oneida County, which owns and operates the composting site. These are then emptied into an outside dumpster. "We're doing something good for the environment," says Teichmiller. "That's the only reason we do it."

Fritz Diekvoss, owner of The Haven, a family owned restaurant also in Minocqua, shares that view. "I believe in trying to save landfill space," says Diekvoss. The Haven has about 20 employees, all of whom separate out plastic, foil, and other contaminants from the compostables. "We do this because it's convenient and we have a strong commitment to the environment," says Diekvoss.

LOTS OF ENTHUSIASM AND FEW EXTRA STEPS

Schreiner's restaurant in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, sends about one ton a week of fruit and vegetable trim and peelings, floral, egg shells, and coffee grounds and filters to Sharp Squash Farm for composting. About a third by weight is coffee grounds. "It's working really well," says owner Paul Cunningham. Schreiner's, which has been in business since 1938, serves 1,800 meals each day - and employs 140.

"The employees are really enthusiastic, and the costs are very small," says Cunningham. They haven't changed the frequency of their regular trash pulls, but may eventually do that, which could save some money. "We've only been at this a couple of months, but we're very pleased with the progress we're making," says Cunningham. Schreiners began separating for composting in April. One large container for compostables is located in the kitchen prep area. "The tote is within a few steps of the prep tables," says Cunningham. When the container is full, it is put outside and another container is brought in. "It's really just a matter of taking five steps to one garbage can versus three steps to another," says Lynn Hayes, Assistant Manager.

"We have a really well organized kitchen, so we have room to adjust for the composting container," says Hayes. The composter, who provides both collection and composting, supplies the 32-gallon Roughneck lidded containers. About seven or eight containers are picked up each Thursday and Sunday and replaced with clean ones. "We're doing this because it is the right thing to do," says Cunningham, who is also a board member of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association. "There's still more we could pull out. We could be pulling out napkins, paper place mats and other things, but the composter is not ready for this yet."