In 2018, the Green Dining Alliance reached our maximum capacity in terms of restaurant certification, hovering around 114 restaurants.
Luckily, our fearless leader at St. Louis Earth Day, Jen Myerscough, decided it was time to grow our program, and we were able to hire a second full-time employee for the first time ever. In October of 2018, we hired Victoria Donaldson, a smart, affable woman with a great laugh and a passion for social justice. With Victoria’s help, we will be able to significantly expand our reach and grow our Green Dining Club program. Look out for all the new restaurants we’ll be adding in 2019!
Welcome Victoria to the Green Dining Alliance!
We estimate that our current restaurants have diverted 1,769 tons of material from the landfill through recycling and composting. Diversion numbers like that don’t come easily – it takes a lot of work to help educate restaurant owners and employees about recycling responsibly. Items like plastic bags, coffee cups, straws, and cutlery are common restaurant recycling errors that can ruin loads of otherwise recoverable material.
The GDA makes sure to use our annual audits to provide mini waste audits onsite, reminding employees not to bag recyclables and recommending signage to improve customer recycling. We also provide in-depth waste audits on request, where we meet with a restaurant’s staff to discuss the recycling dos and don’ts, explaining why items like gloves can’t go in single-stream bins (they get tangled in equipment at Material Recovery Centers – just like plastic bags).
GDA Program Manager Jenn DeRose performs a waste audit at Mission Taco in The Loop’s Green Dining District.
A good chunk of our diversion came from our Green Dining Districts (areas where 25% of the independent restaurants are GDA Certified). We added a third Green Dining District on South Grand in 2018, and we hope to add one more in 2019 (stay tuned to learn where!)
Straw elimination and adoption of compostable products were big trends we noticed in 2018. Dozens of GDA Restaurants either gave up straws (except on request) or moved to compostable plastic or paper straws. Compostable products are becoming so popular that our local go-to vendor, Garrett Paper, ran out for a brief period during the summer! We think that compostable materials (and reusables, like our bamboo cutlery) will be the future of to-go products.
Speaking of compost, reducing food waste was another big theme of 2018 for the GDA. We were honored to receive the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge award at Busch Stadium in April for our work helping restaurants reduce food waste through strategies like food waste logs, strict measuring, composting, and more.
The GDA gets beaked by Fredbird while accepting our award.
Our year has a bittersweet end, as we had to say goodbye to our beloved part-time Communications Coordinator, Aspen Steiner. Aspen managed our Facebook and Twitter presence and contributed to our blog and Instagram profile. We’ll miss her and her expertise, and we’re thankful for all she’s taught us. Even though she’s no longer officially part of the GDA, she’s still involved with us and with St. Louis Earth Day as a member of our Young Friends of St. Louis Earth Day board.
Aspen (right) solves a tricky Facebook problem with Elizabeth (left) from Recycling On the Go.
Restaurants need engaged customers like you to encourage them to become more sustainable. Your support of the GDA and of our member restaurants helps to lower the environmental impact of our region. Thank you for a fantastic year!
