Comments on: Making greening your restaurant easy, rewarding, and free.

By: Fog Buster

Fog Buster — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 23:36:02 +0000

Serious green restaurants install the latest grease capture technology—Grease Recovery Devices (GRDs)—and thereby increase both sustainability and profitability. GRDs are small clever tanks—they often fit under counters—that capture any grease from the wash water draining from sinks and dishwashers. A GRD allows a restaurants to cancel its $50-$250/month grease trap cleaning services; they quickly pay for themselves. The captured grease can be sold (more $$$) along with used fry grease to be made into biodiesel. GRDs also prevent costly kitchen flooding caused by grease blockages between the kitchen drain and the grease trap under or behind the restaurant. FOG (fat, oil & grease) is the leading cause nationally of sewer overflows that foul rivers and close beaches. GRDs are the best solution and are actively promoted by progressive cities (like LA) and states (like CT). Tips: 1. For maximum ease and reliability, select a GRD with no moving parts or electronics and simple operating instructions. 2. Only use GRDs with ASME 112.14.4 certification. 3. Don’t confuse GRDs—small units that automatically dump their grease at least daily—with grease interceptors and traps, which are larger, often underground and cleaned monthly by a burly guy with a suction hose and a smelly tank truck. GRDs are also called Automatic Grease Recovery Units or by acronyms like AGR, GRU, etc. Terminology varies greatly and gets misused, so just make sure you get a small, self-purging device certified per above.

By: Luigi Fulk

Luigi Fulk — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 13:05:54 +0000

I totally agree with Barbara’s comment. Thanks for sharing such an topical article with all of us. I’ve bookmarked your blog will come back for a re-read again. Keep up the very good work.

By: Refrigerator Gaskets

Refrigerator Gaskets — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:45:04 +0000

These are some great ideas you list here, thanks for sharing. I think that at the worst restaurateurs should make sure that they have energy efficient appliances, or make sure that all their appliances are in correct working order and all seals and doors are properly secured as to not let excess air escape. Doing this will also help with your energy bills.

By: cchiovitti

cchiovitti — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:16:39 +0000

Now this is an idea that I’d LOVE to see implemented in more school lunch programs. The longer my kids are in school, the more atrocious waste and unhealthy habits they pick up there.

By: Uncle B

Uncle B — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 20:06:06 +0000

Cities and Towns must provide Composting and verminator service to the food industries and sell the compost and worm castings to the gardening public of farmers as fertilizer, to off-set costs of such a service, if not make a reasonable profit! Some enterprising soul may read this, look up the price of organic fertilizers, calculate the volume available in his area, take the plan to the bank for financing and end up employing people in the useful recycling of food services wastes into organic fertilizers and make a fair buck doing it – Why not! the money is as green as the product provided!