Restaurant Recycling Project

(From the March 31, 1998 "Report to the Atlanta Group Excom on The Restaurant and Bar Waste Reduction Program")

This project is a long-term effort to decrease the solid waste produced in restaurants and bats in three areas of Atlanta through education and a hands-on waste assessment program which provides technical expertise to these businesses. It also serves as a way to promote the Sierra Club as an organization and a partner in the local community.

In the fall of 1996 Atlanta Group Sierrans surveyed restaurants and bars in Buckhead, Virginia-Highlands, and Little Five Points to determine who is doing what when it comes to recycling. Every business was interested in participating in a waste assessment program.

In the fall of 1997 a waste reduction training session was held in Atlanta and the volunteers in attendance were taught how to conduct an on-site waste assessment of restaurants and bars to determine what could be recycled and options for implementing a program. Although the training was a valuable learning tool for the overall waste reduction program, it has become apparent the our current volunteers' work schedules conflict with times when waste assessments need to be performed.

A solution and funding has been worked out with Community Recycling, Inc., a non-profit who operates the recycling center behind Sevenanda, Bill Sheehan (Georgia Chapter Solid Waste Issues Leader) and Sheldon Cohen (Atlanta Sierran and benefactor to recycling projects). The proposal is to jointly fund, for now $500.00 each (Sierra Club and CRI), an intern who will carry out the workplan as formulated by the Steering Committees for each organization. Sheldon Cohen has previously given the Georgia Chapter $1,000 for recycling work and Bill Sheehan has committed up to $2,000 of Turner Grant money to this program.

For more information, contact: Bob Woodall 404-266-0820, Mark Alexander 404-329-0439, or Lynn Mennillo 404-367-9571.

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Last updated: 30 Nov 99