Restaurant Food Waste is Major Concern for EPA

Jan. 4, 2013 - PRLog -- St. Louis, MO - Food waste is a huge problem - literally. According to the EPA (http://www.epa.gov/foodrecovery/), Americans throw about 33 million tons of food waste into the garbage yearly. That means 40 percent of this country’s food goes uneaten. Food waste is so pervasive that it’s the number one material that ends up in U.S. landfills.

Restaurants contribute about 15 percent of all the food waste that ends up in landfills. In St. Louis, Missouri, and Louisville, Kentucky, Blue Skies Recycling is taking a stand against restaurant food waste, and their clients already have an edge up on recycling their waste.

According to the EPA, food waste is of major concern, because while it rots in dumpsters and landfills, it quickly begins to produce methane, a greenhouse gas that’s 20 times more potent than carbon monoxide. Greenhouse gases trap the sun’s rays, eroding the ozone layer and raising worldwide temperatures.

Blue Skies specializes in customizing recycling and composting programs for various types of businesses and corporations. Blue Skies restaurant clients receive a signature yellow composting bin, and customize a collection schedule. After Blue Skies Recycling picks up (http://www.blueskiesrecycling.com/valetpickup) a restaurant’s waste, it is delivered to a composting site, where it is broken down into a nutrient-rich soil supplement.

It generally takes three months to turn waste into compost, after which it can be used as a valuable soil conditioner. Compost can suppress plant diseases and pests, reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers, promote higher yields of agricultural crops, and facilitate: reforestation, wetlands restoration, and habitat revitalization efforts by amending contaminated, compacted, and marginal soils.

Not only is composting beneficial for the environment, but it’s also cost-effective for restaurants, according to the EPA. Restaurants are typically charged by weight for trash removal, and removing food waste from weighted trash collections reduces the cost of trash removal.

Blue Skies is on the front lines of reducing food waste in the U.S. with its composting program. For more information about Blue Skies Recycling, visit http://www.blueskiesrecycling.com/.

ABOUT BLUE SKIES RECYCLING
Blue Skies Recycling is a premiere collection service for organics, paper and glass recycling solutions. By helping save the environment, businesses can save resources, time and money. Blue Skies serves commercial, industrial and institutional recycling in the St. Louis, MO and Louisville, KY areas by diverting green waste from landfills. Clients benefit from a “valet” collection service, with a customized pick-up schedule. The signature yellow bins help increase awareness of recycling habits, which in turn reduces costly waste.