Project Description
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 |
| Fact Sheet: | Reduce Reuse Recycle Greenpoint! (Restaurants) PDF |
| Project Status: | Completed (June 2017) |
In 2015, Neighbors Allied for Good Growth (NAG) 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 a 3-tiered approach:
- Identified and distributed questionnaires on waste reduction practices to 15 Greenpoint restaurants
- Selected 6 restaurants to receive waste audits and hands-on intensive waste reduction coaching from a professional restaurant sustainability consultant
- Based on the results of the audit, chose 2 of the restaurants to take part in a pilot sustainability project focused on waste reduction
Featured image by Victoria Belanger, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
PROJECT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Identified and 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, which is available at: Nag-brooklyn.org/reduce-reuse-recycle-greenpoint/.
- Selected 6 restaurants to participate in a waste audit; on average more than 50% of each restaurant’s current landfill waste stream was recyclable or compostable. The results from the waste audits are available on the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle website.
- Collaborated with 2 restaurants to launch a reusable takeout container program called Shareware.
