City's Food Waste Put to Good Use

Beverly Hills is famous for its world-class restaurants and hotels. But what happens to all the food waste left over from the city's 250,000 daily visitors and tourists?

"If you don't want to take it home, we will recycle it," said Crista Ajadjadjian, manager of Gyu-Kaku on North La Cienega Boulevard.

In November 2008, the city's public works department partnered with Crown Disposal—the city's solid waste and recycling contractor since 2004—to develop a food waste program that would engage local businesses while supporting efforts to be responsible and green.

Within the first month of launch, 300 tons of food waste was collected from city restaurants and hotels and processed into compost.

"For us, it was a corporate decision. We already have environmental practices in place at all of our other locations, but when we saw how easy the city made this program for us, we were happy to do it," Ajadjadjian said. "Besides, our trash company does all of the hard work."

The city has 140 businesses participating in the program with an average of 1,000 tons of food waste collected each month. Besides Gyu-Kaku, other participating businesses include Lawry's, Woo Lae Oak, the Beverly Hilton, the Peninsula and the Montage. The five-star SLS Hotel is a recent addition.

"The hardest part is the training of the staff," Jorge Chicas, SLS Hotel's executive chef, said about the transition to recycling food waste versus throwing it away. "But the benefits the compost gives to our farmers—and the food we serve—is worth it."

Participating businesses have a separate receptacle for food waste that Crown collects during scheduled trash pickup days. The food waste is then transported to a Crown facility, where it is sorted and moved to a compost-processing site. The resulting compost is then made available to customers for a nominal fee and sometimes for free at Beverly Hills community events.

"Our restaurant and hotel partners have been very enthusiastic about working with us to increase the city's recycling rates," said Shana Epstein, environmental utilities manager for Beverly Hills. She said that 95 percent of the food waste the city collects is turned into compost. "We hope to continue to add new businesses to the program."