BUSY RESTAURANT AND BAKERY COMPLETELY ELIMINATE ORGANIC WASTE AND REDUCE GARBAGE BY 98%
Trafalgars Bistro and Sweet Obsession Cakes and Pastries are revolutionizing restaurant waste removal with a new, innovative recycling and composting program
In only four months, by implementing an onsite, closed loop composting program, Vancouver’s Trafalgars Bistro and Sweet Obsession Cakes and Pastries have gone from filling an industrial sized dumpster four times per week to creating waste that barely fills a (reused) plastic garbage bag.
The popular restaurant and bakery have eliminated 100% of organic waste going to landfill, and now recycle 98% of the remaining garbage. By collaborating with fellow eco-pioneers: GreenGood, Urban Impact, and Inner City Farms; Trafalgars and Sweet Obsession owners, Lorne Tyczenski and Stephen Greenham, are putting passion into practice with this bold green initiative.
The restaurants installed a shared GreenGood GG-50 composting machine in September 2011. It composts waste in 24 hours, emits no odour, and reduces food waste down to 90% of its original volume. Each day, the restaurant and bakery teams separate waste into eight different disposal streams: returnable containers, hard plastics, soft plastics, glass, paper, metal cardboard, and organics.
Creating a closed-loop system, all organic waste from the restaurants deposited in the onsite GreenGood composting machine, approximately 240 kg, is retrieved by Inner City Farms once a week to be used in neighbourhood farms throughout the city, enhancing the health of the soil and reclaiming valuable nutrients that would have otherwise been sent to the landfill. Anything that’s not organic gets collected by Urban Impact and ABD Solutions to be recycled.
“Ultimately, we are turning Vancouver’s food waste into food for Vancouver,” said Greenham, co-owner of Trafalgars Bistro and Sweet Obsession. “The culmination of this progressive model of urban agriculture provides the city with beautiful gardens and organic fruits and vegetables.”
As an added bonus, Trafalgars and Sweet Obsession have realized a significant savings in waste removal costs, and the GG-50 will pay for itself in approximately two years. Plus, the process has been a team building opportunity for the engaged and enthusiastic staff at Trafalgars and Sweet Obsession who has made it a habit to be extreme green.
About Trafalgars Bistro and Sweet Obsession Cakes and Pastries
Trafalgars Bistro is a cozy, informal, award-winning Ocean Wise restaurant with a modern French menu located in Vancouver at 16th & Trafalgar. Chef Matthew Villamoran’s style embraces French classical techniques, Italian processes, high quality ingredients, using sustainable products from the Pacific Northwest. Two doors down, Sweet Obsession Cakes and Pastries is a bakery and café with patio, serving up fine desserts and savoury snacks of uncompromising quality using no stabilizers, preservatives, and no artificial colour or flavourings. Owners Lorne Tyczenski and Stephen Greenham have created their bistro and bakery with a farm-to-table philosophy supporting local organic farms that share their passion for sustainability, simplicity and seasonality. The Westside favorites have been neighbourhood fixtures since 1993.
About GreenGood and GreenGood Composter
GreenGood Composter is an aerobic composting machine. It recycles food waste to compost as quickly as 24 hours. It is scalable from household to industrial usage.
About Inner City Farms
Inner City Farms is a Vancouver based urban agriculture collective growing vegetables, fruit and culinary herbs in residential spaces. The food is distributed primarily through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model, benefiting both the farmer and consumer.
About Urban Impact
Urban Impact was launched as the first multi-material recycling company in Metro Vancouver. As a family-owned business with a fresh, innovative approach to the management of waste and recycling, Urban Impact has been servicing most key industrial and commercial and government sectors for more than 20 years.
