Reduce Reuse Recycle Greenpoint! (Restaurants)

Project Lead:	North Brooklyn Neighbors (formerly Neighbors Allied for Good Growth)
Project Partners:	Common Ground Compost; Brooklyn Allied Bars and Restaurants; and the North Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce
Project Location:	Greenpoint-wide
GCEF Grant:	$27,722
Matching Contribution:	$3,640
TOTAL INVESTMENT:	$31,362
Project Completed:	June 2017

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

In 2015, through a competitive process, North Brooklyn Neighbors (NBN) received a GCEF grant of $27,722 (and provided $3,640 in matching funds) to conduct a waste reduction campaign with Greenpoint restaurants to help divert waste from landfills. Major project activities involved: distributing questionnaires on waste reduction practices to 15 Greenpoint restaurants, selecting 6 restaurants to undergo waste audits and hands-on intensive waste reduction coaching from a professional restaurant sustainability consultant, and choosing 2 of the restaurants, Anella and Jimmy’s (no longer open) on Franklin Avenue, to take part in a pilot project focused on waste reduction using reusable takeout containers called “Shareware”.

The project’s website is at https://northbrooklynneighbors.org/project/reusable-takeout-container-pilot-program/

Featured image by Victoria Belanger, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Interviewed 15 restaurants and bars to create a best practice resource for local Greenpoint restaurants
Created a Greenpoint specific educational brochure, hosted 2 educational workshops, and built a dedicated webpage for people in the restaurant industry to reference
Selected 6 restaurants to participate in a waste audit, which found that 50% of each restaurant’s current landfill waste stream was recyclable or compostable
Collaborated with 2 restaurants to launch a reusable takeout container program called “Shareware”