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"DAGSBORO -- Leave some seared ahi tuna or grilled asparagus behind when you get up from the table at one of about 30 Rehoboth-area restaurants and it will end up here, inside a long row of mulch in the making, at a yard waste recycling plant, instead of being tossed in a landfill to rot.
This summer, for the first time, several dozen coastal Sussex restaurants agreed to split their food waste from their other trash and let a Blue Hen truck pick it up. It's a key part in an economic chain a nonprofit company, Eden Delmarva, is trying to build as a way to keep compostable kitchen scraps out of landfills, and show businesses they can save money through environmentally friendly practices. In July alone, the arrangement diverted 38 tons of restaurant waste to the mulch beds, keeping it out of landfills.
"We chose the food generators that were most likely to benefit right away," said DC Kuhns, Eden's executive director.
The project, called REPLENISH, is grant-funded by Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, The Longwood Foundation and Constellation Energy, and Eden offered to pay for the trash containers and arrange for regular pickups. It also publicizes the restaurants who participate and runs drawings for their patrons, with cash prizes.
Several restaurants accepted the offer, including the Back Porch Café, a long-running fine dining spot in Rehoboth Beach.
"There was a little effort involved," said Keith Fitzgerald, a partner and general manager at the restaurant. "We've been here a long time, doing things the way we do it."
Cook stations had to have two trash cans, one for food and one for other trash. And the kitchen had to stop using black plastic bags, switching to clear ones so the haulers could look out for anything that wouldn't become mulch.
With the changes made, the program's worked well, Fitzgerald said. It led the restaurant to cut back on how frequently its private waste hauler came to take regular garbage away, from three times a week to two, saving the business the expense."
"DAGSBORO -- Leave some seared ahi tuna or grilled asparagus behind when you get up from the table at one of about 30 Rehoboth-area restaurants and it will end up here, inside a long row of mulch in the making, at a yard waste recycling plant, instead of being tossed in a landfill to rot.
This summer, for the first time, several dozen coastal Sussex restaurants agreed to split their food waste from their other trash and let a Blue Hen truck pick it up. It's a key part in an economic chain a nonprofit company, Eden Delmarva, is trying to build as a way to keep compostable kitchen scraps out of landfills, and show businesses they can save money through environmentally friendly practices. In July alone, the arrangement diverted 38 tons of restaurant waste to the mulch beds, keeping it out of landfills.
"We chose the food generators that were most likely to benefit right away," said DC Kuhns, Eden's executive director.
The project, called REPLENISH, is grant-funded by Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, The Longwood Foundation and Constellation Energy, and Eden offered to pay for the trash containers and arrange for regular pickups. It also publicizes the restaurants who participate and runs drawings for their patrons, with cash prizes.
Several restaurants accepted the offer, including the Back Porch Café, a long-running fine dining spot in Rehoboth Beach.
"There was a little effort involved," said Keith Fitzgerald, a partner and general manager at the restaurant. "We've been here a long time, doing things the way we do it."
Cook stations had to have two trash cans, one for food and one for other trash. And the kitchen had to stop using black plastic bags, switching to clear ones so the haulers could look out for anything that wouldn't become mulch.
With the changes made, the program's worked well, Fitzgerald said. It led the restaurant to cut back on how frequently its private waste hauler came to take regular garbage away, from three times a week to two, saving the business the expense."
