At Bar Pilar in the U Street corridor, wait staff no longer chuck uneaten food into the dumpster. Scraps are instead thrown into pails and taken out back to a compost heap. Same thing across town at Restaurant Nora in Dupont Circle and Zola in Penn Quarter. Not too far from Zola, chefs at Poste Modern Brasserie even use a portion of the bistro's compost to fertilize the on-site garden.
These are but a handful of the restaurants in the Washington area embracing eco-friendly waste disposal. No fewer than 15 local eateries compost, a far cry from the dozens that do so in cities such as San Francisco and Seattle, but the list is growing.
Food scraps account for some 13 percent, or 32 million tons, of the total garbage generated nationwide, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Of that 32 million tons, less than 3 percent is composted, with the remainder discarded in incinerators and landfills. The food waste that languishes in landfills produces methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
Composting, however, is not without its challenges. There are only a few commercial compost haulers in the area and even fewer facilities that can handle the decomposition of restaurant waste. What's more, removal costs can add anywhere from $100 to $300 to a restaurant's monthly trash bill.
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