OCEAN CITY, Md. - So far this year, Bayside Skillet Restaurant has composted 50,000 pounds of unavoidable food waste. This is because of their partnership with a program of Go Green OC.
"That number was kind of astounding." said owner Sid Zweigbaum.
Go Green OC is a nonprofit with a goal to make Ocean City the first zero waste resort town in the United States. Since launching their program, Ocean Compost LLC in 2018, the amount of restaurants to join has grown and the amount of unavoidable food waste has decreased.
Ocean Compost LLC works, with the help of the city, to collect compost from its participating restaurants and diverge it.
"Basically what we do is we have the restaurant take the food waste out of the normal waste stream and place it in a separate container. From that we move the food waste to our local farm and within a few months it's turned into a healthy compost soil which can actually be sold locally. The program also creates green jobs and moves money away from an incinerator and into the hands of local community members of Worcester county." said Josh Chamberlain, Founder of Go Green OC.
Owner of the compost program and the participating Hobbit restaurant, Garvey Heiderman, emphasizes how easy the program is to use and how restaurants can be even more proactive, "The biggest thing is the manufacturing side and where they source their products from, resourcing products and being a restaurant guy I know how important the bottom line is but you know you make a decision with the products you purchase."
For more information on how to get involved in the program or to learn more about composting, visit gogreenwithoc.org.