Back in August 2019, we put out our first BIG IDEAS survey and received 347 responses from committed long-time customers and newbies alike. We asked you to evaluate 15 ideas in terms of your level of interest: Do you wanna see us do more catering? (Not so much.) Do you want more plant-based menu options? (A third of you do!)

“More green options: packaging, composting, etc.” was the second most popular idea, with 57% of survey respondents backing it. I can see why! This is an urgent agenda item for a large portion of today’s society. Greening things up is a tough one for us because we are a high-volume, take-out friendly shop in a convenience-driven society. Single-use packaging is largely unavoidable. But I am game to try some stuff! I am game if you’re game.

It’s taken us a bit longer than I wish and we have miles to go, but we’ve started moving towards upping our sustainability game. I want to share with you some of our work to date and some ideas for the future, and also make a passionate plea for your involvement! This only works with your active support. We all need to change our behavior to make this work. Are you hyped?

Composting

We started composting in October 2019 through Rhodeside Revival, a local facilitator between residential/commercial customers and a composting facility. Other composting facilitators we checked out had strict requirements for their feed (no animal products/bones/shells, for example) and Rhodeside Revival could pick up all our food waste. They haul to Earth Care Farm in Charlestown, RI, which also happens to be our landlord’s sister’s farm where we get beautiful rhubarb in the spring. They produce and bag wicked good compost and I love how traceable this loop is. With this type of thing, traceability is super important to me — if we are spending time, energy and money into developing new systems within our shop, we want to make sure they have full impact.

To date, we have been composting between 2-3 “totes” per week, which works out to ~300-450 lbs/week of organic material diverted from landfills. This is just from the kitchen! Exciting.

What’s next here: We have a new (small) composting bin inside our bus bins in the Front of House. I’m still figuring out how to make it attractive and useful. Composting with the general population at our scale is a bit more complicated than putting a bucket in our kitchen. Send me your ideas!

Reusable Plates, Cups & Mugs

We’re mostly a take-out business and have more in common with fast food restaurants than full-service ones. We have single-use packaging UP THE WAZOO and to be real with you, I hate it. I hate ordering it and I hate having to find somewhere to fit it and I know it’s going to end up as trash. As our business grows, this challenge grows more concerning for me. Switching to reusables is actually a HUGE area of potential impact for us. If we can switch most of our for-here orders to reusable plates, cups & mugs instead of single-use, we can reduce our packaging waste by 10-25%. WE NEED THIS! We need it for sustainability reasons… and we also need it because we’re running out of space for storing single-use packaging. Expect a strong push from us on this one.

We just splurged on more plates, mugs & cups in various sizes, as well as silverware. Now that we have a dishwashing machine, our team can manage the operations of this change more smoothly. I also think it’s a more pleasant experience to take the time to sit and eat off a plate anyway! I am very excited about this change.

What’s next here: We’ll be encouraging you ask for your order “for here” instead of “to go”, especially if you are eating in. Not to put y’all on the spot… but we see many of you get it to go and end up unwrapping your food and sitting down to eat. I think that’s a brilliant opportunity to change our behavior and avoid single-use packaging. We’re happy to give you a box for leftovers if you need it!

This question is probably gonna come up, so let me preempt it: What about compostable packaging?

While we’re switching to better packaging options where possible (holla at our new compost-friendly sandwich boxes!), we’re not considering compostable plastics at this point. I’ve researched this on and off since 2018 and my Cliff Notes on this topic are:

• Compostable plastics need to be sent to a specialized facility and we have none of those in RI

• Sometimes these composting haulers just end up tossing the “compost” in the landfill anyway

• The plastics contain questionable chemicals that may not be good to put back into soil

• Because y’all take these disposables out of our shop and throw them in the trash/recycling at home/in the office/out in the world, the main benefit is lost

• We’d be paying a considerable premium for this type of packaging (plus different hauling/processing costs) to deal with all of the above

I know other restaurants have made a big push for compostable plastics and I feel the weight of your expectations and our responsibility. But the more I read about this industry top to bottom, the less confidence I feel that we would be doing anything other than overspending on packaging and underdelivering on the promise. If we’re not going to have the impact, I don’t want to convert to “compostables” for the marketing glow. (THE MARKETING GLOW IS REALLLL y’all) I’m on the side of creating less trash in the first place, instead of figuring out what to do with the trash we create. Wanna read more about this topic? Read Clover’s blog here and here— they pioneered the use of all-compostable packaging in fast food years ago, they’ve been VERY open about its successes and struggles, and they are a huge inspiration for what we do here.

Tell me your thoughts: I’m curious to hear your creative ideas for reducing the amount of trash we create and increasing adoption of composting within our 4 walls. Like with every other facet of our business, we’re looking to continuously up our game here.