MHI announces they now are producing thermoformed packaging made 100% from collected and recycled water, juice and sports drink plastic bottles. Trays, clamshells, blisters and more produced with Good Earth(tm) 100% recycled PET are also Biodegradable, Compostable and Recyclable. FDA approved, this proprietary material can be used for food and non food applications.

Good Earth(tm) 100% post consumer recycled content PET is the newest addition to MHI’s proprietary family of eco friendly packaging. This material expands MHI’s existing selection of material options marketed as “Todays’s Most Practical Alternatives” for environmentally responsible packaging.

Developed and manufactured by MHI, a vertically intergrated division of CEI Incorporated, this new proprietary material offers many environmental, performance and cost benefits for those looking to use more eco friendly packaging. This carbon footprint reducing option is not only made 100% from recycled plastic bottles, it is also biodegradable and compostable in a landfill or compost environment. It can also be recycled through existing programs.
Currently, the average person discards 166 plastic bottles annually with 8 out of 10 ending up in landfills.

FDA approval, high clarity, range of colors, temperature range and good strength make it an attractive and practical alternative for a wide range of food and consumer goods packaging. Performance and physical characteristics are the same as or close to the traditional materials (PET & PVC) it can easily replace and does not have any shelf life, storage or heat sensitivity limitations.

Cost of packaging manufactured from this newest Good Earth ™ material is usually less than the traditional material it replaces and is readily available.

Also available (depending on certain factors) is a “closed loop” program where plastic bottles can be picked up and then remanufactured into 100% post consumer recycled content thermoformed packaging for the company or institution returning the bottles.

For more information call 978-745-8876 or visit www.goodearthpkg.com

http://www.pr.com/press-release/106801

             

The hippies are coming! The hippies are coming!

That may have been what the Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival initially attracted in its first few years of existence. The four-day festival at Clinton Lake State Park in Lawrence, Kan., prides itself in bringing in plenty of big names from the jam band scene along with premiere acts in alt-country, Southern rock, reggae and bluegrass while raising awareness for environmental issues.

For its fifth year, Wakarusa is trying something different.

The festival, which takes place Thursday, June 5 through Sunday, June 8, is expanding its musical horizons even further. They are bringing in indie rock mainstays like Built to Spill, piano-playing singer/songwriter Ben Folds, country legend Emmylou Harris, goofy alt-rockers Cake, underground hip-hop acts like Blackalicious and Del the Funky Homosapien and Uncle Monk, a bluegrass duo featuring none other than Tommy Ramone, the last surviving member of the seminal punk rock quartet The Ramones.

These are just a few groups on a jam-packed lineup including headliners like The Flaming Lips, Sound Tribe Sector Nine, Keller Williams, Zappa Plays Zappa, Mickey Hart Band featuring Steve Kimock and George Porter Jr., Galactic, The Avett Brothers and a ton of others.

Brett Mosiman, co-director of Wakarusa, realized that this year instead of having similar genres competing for the festival’s crowd over the four-day period, it would be beneficial to the festival to do a little bit of counter-programming with the more than 120 bands on the festival’s lineup.

“I think of part of it was just getting a handle on the fact that we have 300 or 400 hours or music,” Mosiman says. “If we wanted to keep five or six stages, we had to broaden the booking.”

The festival’s five stages will have music playing nearly 24 hours a day, which will be perfect for attendees who pay between $129 to $169 for a four-day pass.

But this year, Wakarusa is hoping that their diverse lineup featuring several big-name acts will get more of a local audience from Kansas City and other areas close by to get the Wakarusa experience, even if it’s only for a night.

“We kind want to offer a little something more for the people here in the regional community,” says David Barrett, director of marketing for Wakarusa. “We want people just to come out to Wakarusa for a day and see what it’s like.”

Or a weekend. Wakarusa is offering its usual single-day tickets for $49 while also offering a weekender pass for $99 in case people couldn’t take off four days because of something silly like jobs or kids or things like that.

While you are at Wakarusa, you may notice how friendly the festival is to the environment it occupies. The generators run on biodiesel. Recycling also is a huge emphasis. Last year’s festival recycled 8,000 pounds of waste that would normally end up gracing local landfills. They are also instituting their first-ever composting program, so whatever food you don’t want (or think tastes like crap) can go towards growing a happy little plant. Bob Ross would be proud.

They will also have a sustainability meeting featuring the editor of Mother Earth News, Brian Welch, a campus tour of human rights awareness and a no-sweat fashion show to display clothes not manufactured in sweat shops.

If you ask Mosiman, these activities are an essential element of Wakarusa’s identity.

“(They’re) all the normal things for us, but I don’t think they are normal for most festivals,” Mosiman says. “We just consider that part of the brand now.”

And another characteristic of the Wakarusa brand is the vendors. The 75 food, arts and crafts vendors will be selling a little bit of everything. On the arts and crafts side, you could pick up clothing, glass marbles, art, glow-in-the-dark light covers, bottle holders and goods made of bee wax. As far as food goes, Madina Salaty, Wakarusa’s vendor coordinator, says they have everything from “healthy options to junk food.” You’ve got your pizza, hamburgers, fries, but you’ve also got organic and vegetarian options, Cajun, Indian, Middle Eastern, Mexican and Chinese food to choose from.

Salaty says that while the number of vendors has slightly increased this year, high gas prices have kept vendors who consistently travel many miles to sell their products at Wakarusa from making the trip.

“We have lost several vendors,” she says. “They have specifically told me that that’s the reason.”

The location of Wakarusa should be enough for people to ignore the prices at the pump. The festival will once again place at Clinton Lake State Park, southwest of Lawrence, Kan. The 1,500 acre facility has plenty to offer those who aren’t just there for the music, with beaches, an 11,000 acre lake, horseshoe pits and hiking trails.

“The amenities are really like no other festival that’s held in a field or a polo ground,” Mosiman says. “It’s really like a family vacation.”

Mosiman knows the traveling aspect of Wakarusa may be less tempting with gas prices so high, but he thinks that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a unique musical experience, no matter how long you decide to stay.

“I think it’s impacting everybody, and our big message is that you still got to have fun. You have to cut loose,” Mosiman says. “Don’t let those greedy oil bastards take away your fun and your Wakarusa weekend.”

For more information, go to www.wakarusa.com.

by Blake Hannon

http://www.stjoenews.net/news/2008/may/30/loud-outdoors/?diem

             

WASHINGTON - Though you have to bend down to read it, the fist-size green logo on the front window of Le Pain Quotidien might be the most visible sign that the bakery-restaurant is environmentally sensitive. But that little sticker’s declaration that the Georgetown business is a “certified green restaurant” describes a host of ecologically minded practices taking place on the other side of the door.

Going green, it turns out, is all in the details. And some are less obvious than others.

At Le Pain Quotidien, which opened last spring, the 39-seat communal dining table was fashioned out of reclaimed wood from vintage Belgian train cars. Cleaning products used on the floor and kitchen counters are nontoxic and non-polluting. The to-go cups are made of corn and the spoons of potato starch; they will disintegrate within 30 to 90 days in a commercial compost site rather than sit in a landfill. The exceptional croissants, like the other baked goods, are made with organic flour and butter.

Although it is so far the only restaurant here to earn certification from the Boston-based Green Restaurant Association, Le Pain Quotidien is in good company nationwide. Restaurateurs increasingly are realizing that environmentally minded customers care about more than local produce, sustainable seafood and free-range meats. In a survey by the National Restaurant Association, 62 percent of consumers said they would be likely to choose a restaurant based on its environmental friendliness.

Bergen Kenny, 29, was one of them as she stood in Le Pain Quotidien’s takeout line on a recent morning, waiting for her daily organic pumpkin muffin and fair-trade coffee. “You try to be green in your life, and when you come here they’ve taken care of all that,” says Kenny.

The restaurant association also reported that, in another survey, a quarter of restaurants said they plan to spend more on going green this year. Besides the environmental benefits, restaurant owners hope that such efforts can in the long run help them deal with increased energy and waste-management costs.

“Companies and restaurants are investing in the hard costs of ecologically friendly operations, and people are responding,” says food industry consultant Clark Wolf, president of the New York-based Clark Wolf Co. “These green restaurants are popping up all over the country, in New York like crazy.”

Although the GRA has certified all U.S. operations of Le Pain Quotidien (French for “the daily bread”), a Belgium-based chain with 28 locations in the United States, none is totally sustainable. The D.C. restaurant still needs to find a company in the area that will haul away compostable kitchen waste. It can’t find a source with adequate supplies of organic chicken. But it has satisfied the major requirements of the GRA, a nonprofit organization that has bestowed “certified green” status on more than 300 restaurants and cafes in 30 states and Canada.

“We look at everything,” says executive director Michael Oshman, who founded the GRA in 1990. His 11 environmental guidelines cover energy and water efficiency and conservation, recycling and composting, the use of sustainable food, green building design and construction, and more. The association helps clients find suppliers of locally grown foods, which helps reduce the amount of pollution from fossil fuels used in transportation. “We take a restaurant, no matter where they are in being green, and help them with the steps,” Oshman says.

The stakes are high. Among other environmental effects, the GRA says, the U.S. restaurant industry accounts for one-third of all energy used by retail businesses and is five times as energy-intensive as other retail businesses, including lodging. The group cites studies gathered for Dining Green, a book published by the GRA in 2004, showing that on average, every restaurant meal served produces 1 1/2 pounds of trash. Half of that, the GRA says, is food waste that could be composted.

This past year, the GRA has generated the most interest in its history. Oshman credits the popularity of Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Since the movie’s release in May 2006, Oshman says, “the phone has been ringing off the hook.” Not only restaurant owners are calling. Oshman says the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., has asked for an environmental assessment of its food service operations.

The GRA did not invent the concept of the environmentally friendly restaurant. The group has, however, raised the consciousness about Earth-friendly issues beyond a niche group of food businesses that were sometimes perceived as esoteric.

But in Washington, one chef was green long before green was cool.

“For them it’s all big news. It is a wonderful thing for awareness. But we’ve been doing these things for years,” says chef Nora Pouillon, who opened Restaurant Nora 29 years ago. Eight years ago the restaurant was the first in the United States to be certified organic.

In addition to cooking with all organic and mostly local ingredients, Pouillon has long used recycled paper and soy-based ink for the menus, which change daily. Four employees compost 75 gallons of vegetable waste in home gardens each day. She eliminated fresh flowers in the restaurant when it became too difficult to find blooms that had not been heavily sprayed with pesticides. Pouillon’s search for Earth-friendly solutions goes on.

“What I haven’t been able to find is certified organic cotton chef jackets and pants,” she says. “No one is making organic shirts for the wait staff anymore.”

Overall, she says, organic ingredients add 20 percent to her costs, and labor costs are 20 percent higher than for a restaurant of comparable size.

“Someone has to haul the compost. Everything adds up,” Pouillon says. “But my business is better than ever, because more and more people are aware and concerned about healthy eating and the environment.”

Nicolas Jammet, co-owner of Sweetgreen, a salad and yogurt bar in Georgetown, also hopes to be certified in the next month. Energy-efficient wiring was installed before the business opened in August. Walls are made of recycled hickory. The owners use salad bowls made of corn-based materials, and the forks and spoons are biodegradable.

For Jammet, there is more to accomplish on the green checklist. Every step, he says, “adds to our mission.”

“It’s not a trend or a gimmick,” says Jammet, a Georgetown University graduate who has lots of customers from his alma mater. “It’s the future to be eco-conscious.”

For Le Pain Quotidien, the environmental commitments extend to some of the smallest decisions that employees make.

“You must watch your trash audit,” says Patrick Jenkins, vice president of operations for the chain. “When you make a latte, you can’t throw a milk container into the trash instead of recycling.”

One model, Oshman says, is the Grille Zone in Boston, which he calls “the best example of a zero-waste business.”

Through recycling and composting, this GRA-certified burger joint has pared its total waste per day, after serving an average 150 customers in 900 square feet, to half of a standard 55-gallon trash bag. (By Oshman’s calculations, a similar-size restaurant without recycling and composting procedures produces 10 to 12 bags of garbage per day.)

Le Pain Quotidien is working toward such success. Managers in Georgetown regularly check bins for misplaced refuse and call it to the attention of employees. And they continue to look for a company to haul away scrap dough and other food waste for composting.

It’s a difficult challenge, Jenkins says. “We’re looking for a total zero” when it comes to waste, he says, “but we’re not there yet.”

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0118restaurants-ON.html

             

Donna and Kevin Maltz, owners of the Fresh Sourdough Express Bakery in Homer, have perfected their recipe for success over the past 25 years. Scratch baking and environmental sustainability are the hallmarks this business, which just this summer became the first certified “green restaurant” in the state. The certification was awarded by the Green Restaurant Association, a nonprofit organization that bestows the title on restaurant owners who adopt sustainable practices, such as conserving water and energy, composting, recycling, and using non-toxic cleaning products and chemicals.

In an effort to encourage other area businesses to adopt environmentally friendly practices, the Maltzs started Sustainable Homer, an organization that works to unify Homer’s environmentally conscious citizens and make it a “green star” community. Donna said she hopes Sustainable Homer will persuade other Alaskan communities to take steps toward sustainability.

“We started Sustainable Homer to encourage business owners to ask questions like, how can I make my business more responsible? How can I be contributing to the economy by doing things that aren’t taking advantage of the resources?” Donna said. “Anything we do today can protect the future for our children - that’s sustainability.”

Originally from Washington, Donna had earned a degree in social ecology from Evergreen State College.

“I was an organic farmer and a hippy,” Donna said. “I was a true child of the ?70s. I was passionate about the environment and doing anything I could to walk lightly on the earth.”

Donna came to Alaska when she was 24 years old. She planned to travel the state, selling baked goods and soup from her van. So in 1982, she loaded her van with bags of split peas and organic grain, and set out along the Alcan Highway. It took her nearly a month to get to Alaska as she baked and drove through blizzards.

“I arrived on fumes and with only $43 in my pocket,” Donna said. “When I got to Homer I said, ?I ain’t leaving.’”

Donna took residence in a fish shack and slept on a bunk bed. Broke but determined, she called her dad and asked for a $10,000 loan. She used the money to purchase a little shop on 1316 Ocean Drive, where the Fresh Sourdough Express Bakery remains to this day. The original bakery van sits out front, a testament to Donna’s youthful determination. “I want people, and especially young people to know, you don’t need a huge amount of startup capital to start a business,” Donna said. “You need integrity and passion. Stand up for what you believe in, put yourself out there, and the rest will take care of itself.”

Donna’s husband, Kevin, was hired as head baker in 1984. They married in 1988, and their son was born three years later.

The bakery has evolved over the years, expanding from a fledgling 375-square-foot bakery to a fully remodeled full-service bakery and restaurant.

In 1991, Donna went national with AH!LASKA organic cocoa and chocolate syrup. The Maltzs still own a percentage of AH!LASKA, and Donna also works in brand management and consulting for new product development and concepts. Donna said she created the products as a way to heighten people’s awareness of food choices.

“Your food choices don’t just affect your body and environment, but the body and environment of the people who are growing, processing, packaging and marketing your food,” she said. “It’s a whole global picture.”

Eventually, the Maltzs would like to move their bakery from its current location to a larger lot with a view of Kachemak Bay and the Homer Spit. They would also like to focus more on weddings and catering, and Donna plans to do more brand management and consulting. But their main focus is, has and will always be sustainability.

When she arrived in Alaska 25 years ago, Donna estimates that 25 percent to 30 percent of her food was grown and harvested locally.

“Now it’s about 2 percent,” Donna said. “People are abandoning their gardens. Alaska used to be a much more sustainable state, but we’ve become complacent. We need to support local businesses to protect the wealth of resources that we have.”

In order to keep their green certification, the Maltzs will incorporate four new environmental measures a year. Their focus for next year will be energy and water efficiency.

In the meantime, they’ve changed all their incandescent bulbs to fluorescents, replaced paper towels with hand-dryers, replaced old seals and gaskets, and incorporated low-flow hoses.

For the Maltzs, sustainable practices are almost second nature. Donna said she was grinding her own organic grain, drinking organic coffee and driving fuel-efficient cars before it was fashionable.

“I was into sustainability before I knew what it was,” Donna said. “Now it’s about helping the community.”

By Carly Horton

http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/102107/hom_20071021073.shtml

             

It is mid-afternoon in an airy, lower-Manhattan flat, on the ninth floor of a posh-looking building with a doorman. It is a bit dark and there are no lights on. There is a strange quiet feel to the flat, perhaps due to the lack of any appliances - no fridge humming, no TV interference, even no air conditioning, though it is hot and humid outside.

Walk into the bathroom, and you will notice that there is no toilet paper, no bottles of shampoo or toiletries.

In the kitchen, berries and cheese are laid out on the counter and there are candles on the dining table.

This is the home of No-Impact Man, aka Colin Beavan, who describes himself on his blog as a “guilty liberal who finally snaps, swears off plastic… turns off his power… and while living in NYC turns into a tree-hugging lunatic who tries to save the polar bears”.

While there are a lot of people who think that we’re freaks, our friends have been really supportive, and they do come over and play Scrabble with us in the dark Michelle Beavan

He has dragged his wife, Michelle, and young daughter Isabella, along for the ride.

“The concept is that we should have no net environmental impact, which is, of course, technically not feasible,” says Colin.

“So the idea is that we would reduce our negative impact and increase our positive impact.”

Cutting the trash

The 43-year-old writer says he is not manically trying to offset everything, but he tries to get involved in environmentally friendly or sustainable projects around the city.

The first stage of the one-year experiment was to reduce rubbish. The family buys only second-hand goods and takes a hamper to the market.

Colin uses a glass jar he picked up from the trash as a reusable cup when he orders take-out coffee or juice.

Baking soda, vinegar and borax are used as cleaning products

Food is bought every other day from the nearby farmers’ market on Union Square, and put in the hamper without wrapping.

The family then stopped using all carbon-producing transport, so they now walk or cycle.

They then shut down electricity in the flat - no more dishwasher, fridge or washing machine.

Now they are trying to reduce the amount of water they use, from the 80-100 gallons (303-379 litres) a day used by the average American, down to seven.

The more the experiment advances, the more drastic the changes become.

“I was a typical American consumer - I shopped a lot, I ate most of my meals in take-out containers, I took cabs everywhere,” said Michelle, a journalist with a weekly business magazine.

Although she still goes to the office every day (on her bike), uses the elevator to get to the 43rd floor, turns on her computer and uses a mobile phone, she has had to redesign her whole life.

“It has been a shock to the system.”

Michelle admits there were times when she regretted agreeing to the no-impact experiment, but says it has been one of the best adventures of her adult life.

“In essence, the project has really slowed down time, which is pretty amazing considering how fast time has become, and especially with us living in New York - you come home to a quiet, soothing cocoon.”

Worm farm

For news from the outside world, there is the solar-powered crank-up radio, although the family rarely uses it.

A solar panel on the roof provides power for a laptop and one light.

From the kitchen, Colin brings out a wooden box with air holes on the sides. He opens the lid and scoops up a handful of dark brown matter that looks and smells like earth. In fact, it’s a combination of fruit and vegetable peels and worms.

“This is the compost box, the worms take the food scraps and they turn it into compost,” explains Colin.

There are many places all over the world that don’t use toilet paper … it’s a lot more hygienic Colin Beavan

What happens in the toilet, where there’s no toilet paper?

“What I’ll tell you, is this: There are many places all over the world that don’t use toilet paper,” is all he will say at first.

He then adds that because people wash, it is a lot more hygienic.

For detergents, laundry, body soap and toothpaste, they use a combination of vegetable oil, baking soda, vinegar and borax.

The Beavans realise that not everybody can afford to embark on a similar radical experiment or live like that long-term.

They also make clear that it is an experiment, and they have had their doubts about what works and what really makes a difference.

They insist they do not want to force their ideas on anyone else, but they feel happy about the difference it has made to their own lives.

Their life is now centred around the kitchen table, as well as activities such as riding bikes together.

“While there are a lot of people who think that we’re freaks, our friends have been really supportive, and they do come over and play Scrabble with us in the dark,” Michelle says.

Creature comforts

But is it really possible to have no impact on the environment while living in a city where any resident is inevitably part of the system?

“There’s no question that this city has an infrastructure and some of the impact of the city itself should get credited to us,” said Colin.

“But the fact is that it is actually easier to live an efficient life in this city, and this is well documented. Here in New York, we emit about a third of the carbon per member of the population of the rest of the country, and it’s because of the efficiencies of scale of this city.”

We’re not going to bring the air-conditioner back. We’re going to continue to ride our bikes everywhere. The fridge will come back, but will be used minimally Colin Beavan

The Beavans say that when the experiment is over, they will not simply revert to their old way of living.

“We’re not going to bring the air-conditioner back. We’re going to continue to ride our bikes everywhere. The fridge will come back, but will be used minimally,” says Colin.

Michelle cannot wait to turn on the washing machine again. Hand-washing clothes has been the toughest change and a chore that has meant laundry is often not done, though Isabella enjoys stomping the clothes in the bathtub.

Colin is planning to write a book about his year as No-Impact Man - his publishers are looking at sustainable ways of publishing.

It may be a worthwhile experiment in the eyes of some, or a total waste of time by a tree hugger for others. But whatever you think of the Beavans, somehow when you leave their flat it feels like there is only one option - to walk down the nine flights of stairs.

By Kim Ghattas

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7000991.stm

             

HUNTINGDON — Having a mom who saved twist-ties, rubber bands and anything she felt had potential for a second life, Tony Seguin said the seeds of his waste-not philosophy were sowed at an early age.

When he opened Boxer’s Cafe 17 years ago, Tony said its wasn’t long before he felt overwhelmed by the amount of waste a restaurant can generate and since has worked with his wife, Paula, to track down ways to reduce and recycle their output.

“Waste is so much harder to ignore when you’re dealing with this kind of volume. It’s maybe easier for a household to ignore,” Tony said.

A week’s worth of french fries and hot wings translates to about 13 gallons of used vegetable oil. The Seguins used to pay to have the oil trucked away, but now they get extra mileage out of the grease by using it as fuel for their Volkswagen Jettas.

Investing about $1,400 a car for parts and labor, Tony sought out mechanics Chris and Isaac Fisher to convert his and Paula’s diesel fuel cars to run on vegetable oil. The Fishers have a loyal customer base of Volkswagen drivers, so the family-run service garage Car Tunes was the Seguins’ top pick for the project.

Fisher, 19, said he never expected to create a grease-powered car.

“It was decent — not bad at all,” he said of placing a 13.2 gallon tank in the trunk of a turbo diesel Jetta where the spare tire used to sit.

“There [were] a lot of people asking questions about it,” Fisher said. He since has completed four conversions and is about to begin a fifth.

Tony said there are several alternative fuel kits available, but he chose Grease Car which allows him and Paula to fill up on straight vegetable oil. Tony had read about Massachusetts-based Grease Car’s simple conversion process that pairs two fuel tanks — one for diesel and one for vegetable oil — which the driver alternates between with the turn of a switch.

Tony said driving a Grease Car has called for a few changes in motoring habits, namely keeping an eye on the engine temperature so he knows when to hit the switch to transfer the fuel source from the diesel tank to the vegetable oil tank.

“Usually, you drive one or two miles before you can switch over,” he said, adding that in winter he typically drives about four miles before the engine warms up enough.

En route from the fryer to the fuel tank, the oil is filtered through canvas bags to remove food particles, then it is stored until it’s time to fill up. At a rate of about 13 gallons of vegetable oil waste a week, Tony said he has enough fuel to supply a small fleet including his Jetta, Paula’s and a friend’s Grease Car.

The filtering process, he said, doesn’t call for a fancy lab, but a simple setup of buckets and bags he keeps in the basement.

Besides switching between fuel tanks and filtering oil, Tony said it’s driving as usual.

“There’s no noticeable difference in performance,” he said.

“And no difference in mileage,” Paula added. “I’m still getting about 40 to 50 [miles per gallon] on the highway.”

The Seguins have traveled all over in their Grease Cars, saving on fuel and gaining peace of mind in the knowledge that they’ve found yet another way to recycle.

Among the most disturbing places in the Seguins’ travel log was a landfill they visited years ago to dispose material left over from a remodeling project that they couldn’t recycle.

“There were these tractor-type vehicles, about the size of the trucks you’d see at the sand plant, with steel knobs sticking out of their tires, driving over this mountain of trash,” Tony recalled.

Paula said she’ll never forget that first eye-opening experience amid rolling hills of garbage.

“We drove up into it and it was just upsetting, really upsetting, to see all that waste.”

“The saying ‘ignorance is bliss’ is so true. Once you become aware of the problem, you can’t not do anything about it,” Paula said.

It was a sight that strengthened their desire to go the extra mile.

Before the restaurant switched to Earth-friendly paper containers, Tony would travel to Lancaster County several times a year to return washed and rinsed polystyrene to the manufacturer for recycling.

He and Paula have tracked down suppliers for all types of environmentally-sound goods: bio-degradable straws, menus printed in soy-based ink on recycled paper and organic cotton T-shirts printed with water-based ink.

Leftovers from the 150 to 200 lunches and dinners they serve each day help feed hogs at a local farm.

What the hogs won’t eat — coffee grounds and citrus peels — are composted at home.

In other words, where there is waste, Tony sees potential for reduction or reuse.

“I think being in this business magnifies the whole thing. We’re all such consumers and there are so many alternatives people just aren’t aware of,” he said.

By Rebecca Berdar

http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/15051.html?nav=742