Food Service Establishments Case Study: Brooklyn Fare
Food Service Establishments Case Study: Renaissance Java Café
The Role of Food Service Establishments in Sustainability
Food service establishments play a special role in the waste stream as the only business type that produces a substantial amount of food waste. This provides the opportunity to start a compost service with your hauler-to reduce waste that goes to the landfill and enjoy lower collection rates.
Sending trash to the landfill is the costliest way to handle waste-both monetarily and environmentally. Waste that ends up in a landfill stays there; it is packed in so that it cannot naturally decompose. Instead, the waste sits there, attracting vermin, releasing fumes, risking groundwater contamination and affecting the health, property values and quality of living of surrounding communities. Waste carters have to pay landfills to store waste, but they can sell organic waste and recyclables-again, reducing the collection rate for the customer while diverting waste from the landfills.
Food service establishments are required by law to recycle metal cans, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles and jugs, and aluminum foil products. To start recycling or organics collection for your business, consult your waste hauler or look to our list below for some recycling haulers in the area.
Download a PDF of the CLS Green Business Guidelines for Food Service Establishments
Why Compost?
Organic matter can be turned to nutrient rich compost, which significantly helps crop production, given the depletion of our topsoil. If it goes to the landfill, it stays in the landfill. By composting, food is no longer waste, but reintegrated into the life cycle.
Initiating a compost service for your food waste is easy! Waste haulers that offer organics collection provide a separate container for food waste. These containers should be lined with compostable bags, not plastic. The hauler will then pick it up and bring it to a compost facility. While waste carters pay landfills to store waste, they can sell compost as a product; these savings are directly reflected in a lower waste collection rate.
If your business would like to start a composting food waste, first consult your waste carter. If your carter does not provide organics collection, you can look at our list of carters that cover Downtown Brooklyn for guidance.
List of haulers
If your business is interested in adding services such as recycling or organics collection, you should first contact your waste carter and see what is available. If you would like to get a new contract, we have a list of carters that do pickups in Downtown Brooklyn and offer environmentally friendly services. All the businesses listed below have trade waste licenses by the Business Integrity Commission. The Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Court-Livingston-Schermerhorn Business Improvement District do not endorse these carters-businesses should consult carters directly and determine if the services provided meet green business needs.
For Paper, Metal, Glass, Plastic Recycling and Organics Collection:
IESI NY Corporation: 1099 Wall Street, Lyndhurst, NJ 07071, (201) 443-3000, Email: cng@iesi.com
Filco Carting Corporation: 111 Gardner Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11237, (718) 456-5000, Email: damon@filcocarting.com
Metropolitan Paper Recycling: 854 Shepherd Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11208-5228, (718) 257-0261, Email: info@metropaperrecycling.com
Action Carting Environmental Services Inc.: 451 Frelinghuysen Avenue, Newark, NJ 07114, (973) 623-7600, Email: info@actioncarting.com
Royal Waste Services Inc: 187-40 Hollis Avenue, Hollis, NY 11423, (718) 468-8679, E-mail: info@royalwaste.com
Mr. T Carting Corporation: 73-10 Edsall Avenue, Glendale, NY 11385, (718) 821-9706 ext 125, www.mrtcarting.com
Diag Express Trucking, LLC: 241 E. 115th Street Apt D1, New York, NY 10029, (646) 796-7890, Email: diagsy7@yahoo.com
For Used Grease:
The Doe Fund, Inc.: 232 East 84th Street, New York, NY 10028, Gary Pernick, Resource Recovery Director, (347) 386-4857, Email: gpernick@doe.org
Additional Information
For more information on commercial waste, please visit the Department of Sanitation's WASTELESS website,
For a list of waste carters as provided by the New York Department of Sanitation, go to http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/html/resources/prod_serv.shtml
For the complete list of waste carters licensed by the Business Integrity Commission, go to http://www.nyc.gov/html/bic/downloads/pdf/pr/licapproved.pdf
For the PDF version of the New York Department of Sanitation commercial recycling brochure, go to http://nyc.gov/html/nycwasteless/downloads/pdf/materials/Commercial.pdf
To learn more about the Con Edison's Small Business Direct Installation Program (with free energy surveys provided by Willdan), go to http://coned.com/energyefficiency/businessdirect.asp