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No matter how you look at it, the restaurant business is a messy operation. We all see the pretty dining rooms and the fancy cocktail lounges, but what we don't see is the mess that is leftover from food preparation and the waste that needs to be disposed of afterwards. Many municipalities and state governments are making legislative changes to make restaurants and other businesses greener, so what can restaurant owners do right now, with minimal investment in order to make their catering operations and their main business a bit greener today.
When you have a catered event at your place of business, or at an outside venue one of the big issues to deal with is how do you handle everything from the trash pickup, to the place settings, to the grease pick up if you happen to be frying chicken? By doing a little homework in advance you can manage all of these issues. If you shop for disposable plates, trays and other disposable tableware you can have that product picked up by a local composter, just as if you called a local biodiesel company, you could ask them to pick up the leftover waste oil from the fryers so they could produce their biodiesel fuel.
Taking a closer look at the tableware and the linens, let's examine some of your options. You can purchase eco-friendly plates, biodegradable containers, and all kinds of disposable tableware in order to minimize the trash you generate from any one particular event. If you purchase disposable tableware that is compostable, you can have all of it picked up by a local composter, usually for free, and know that you have helped to reduce the need for landfill space in your community.
More and more individuals are starting compost piles and bins in their backyards. Many community gardens have created compost piles so that they can utilize local trash in order to create rich mulch for the flowers and the produce that they grow and they encourage neighbors as well as the gardeners to contribute compostable material to the pile. What an ideal place for you to send your trash, where it can do a great deal of good helping things grow and minimizing the amount of material that has to find a home in a local landfill.
With a little bit of planning, you can make a big difference and one that will be noticed by your patrons and the local community. So, before you plan your next event, make a few plans of your own, and seek out the right resources to make the event as green as possible. Source some disposable tableware that is compostable, identify a place where it will do the most good and then sit back and wait for the kudos to come from your neighbors.
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