Taranta Going Green » Compost

Taranta Receives the 2010 MassRecycle Award

jduarte — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 00:27:23 +0000

Every year MassRecycle recognizes a select group of individuals, businesses, municipalities and organizations for their leadership and innovation in promoting recycling and waste reduction by presenting them with the “Green Binnie’ Recycling Award. Winners are selected through a peer review process and Taranta was selected among all the nominees because of the significant contribution made to increase recycling and reducing waste. We are proud to received this award as it motivates us to continuing with our Ecofriendly efforts.

A Recycling and Composting day with Taranta’s Staff

jduarte — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 14:16:01 +0000

Last Monday we did our first field trip with our Staff to the place we send our recyclable products, food waste and biodegradables. Our restaurant Staff has been separating all the waste and as a part of the process of understanding the reason why we do that, I decided to organize a field trip visiting Save That Stuff in Charlestown and Brick End Farms in North Hamilton. We met Adam Mitchell Ian Lavery giving us a tour of the facility and were amazed by the amount of cardboard and paper waste that can be recycled, as well as plastic, glass and metal. We drove about 1/2 hour and arrived to Brick Ends Farm, a site that receives all the food waste, yard trimmings, etc. We learned how they “cook” compost, using wood chips and yard wast on a 1 to 1 ratio with restaurant food waste, they mix it and turn it for about 10 months and the result is a very nutritious compost that is used in Agriculture and Landscaping. During the process thermophilic microorganisms generate heat that can reach up to 160 F. We met Mike, a farmer that leases land at Brick Ends and utilizes the compost to nurture his crops, his farm First Light Farm was the highlight of our experience, meeting him and walking the fields literally eating fennel, carrots, second sprout broccoli and kale was just amazing. We couldn’t resist to ask him if we could harvest some Leeks, Carrots, Celery, Cilantro and Fennel and bring it back to the restaurant. After this very educational experience we understand the importance of what we do and how good it make us feel!! Next… an experiment cooking in the compost pile using Sous Vide Bags, perhaps a some short ribs, cooked over 10 hours….. If anyone is ever interested on organizing a trip to visit the Farm, and have lunch or early dinner with products from the farm just let us know, we will be more that happy to arrange this for you.

Gourmet Adventure Peru 2009, with an Eco-Friendly aspect

jduarte — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:01:50 +0000

March 21 to March 28, Chef Jose Duarte will be joining a group of travelers heading to Peru. The trip is organized by Gourmet Consulting Group and it will be the first exclusive high end Gourmet Adventure with an Eco-Friendly set. The group will be visiting Cusco and Machu Picchu, as a part of the Carbon Offsetting program that the company has established a fund will be created to support a renewable energy project in the Andean Region, a Carbon offset of $6 per passenger for the air portion used from Lima to Cusco will fund the project led by Casa Ecologica del Cusco, our tour operator in Cusco and Lima. Most of the ingredients used by locals chefs in the Cusco area will be organic and sustainable, produced by cooperatives led by Casa Ecologica. We intend not to purchase any small bottled water as we discover that only 20% of plastic bottles are recycled in Peru and they end land filled. We are providing aluminum refillable bottles and will fill from a large purified water container. All the disposable products used will be PLA and compostable, all biodegradable material will be turn into compost. Casa Andina, our selected hotel and the Private Collection brand has agreed not to place plastic bottles of water in the rooms. Hopefully we will quantify the effect of not buying plastic bottles and minimize waste and greatly contribute to the environment. All printed material made of 100% recycled paper and natural inks. The trip will repeat every year, and it has a limited space of 12 participants.

Compost and Recycling, Quantification of changes

jduarte — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 10:41:09 +0000

Amount of glass, metal and plastic recycled from Sept 07 to March 21 08= 22,300 lbs.

Amount of Cardboard recycled from Sept 07 to March 08= 3,710 lbs

Amount of Food Waste (Compost) from Nov 2007 to March 21 08= 12,400 lbs

Amount of Non Recyclable, non compost material “Garbage” from Sep 07 to March 21 08= 390 lbs

Before implementing our composting and recycling all was going to a landfill, now we have reduced our garbage production to 1.01% and we are hoping to continue reduction by using biodegradable PLA cling wrap as soon as it comes to the market, right now we are using normal plastic wrap and it is what is filling most of our garbage as it is very difficult to recycle. We will make an entry at the end of the year to make an accurate yearly calculation on all the results. If you have any questions on how this was figured out, let me know. We use the EPA calculator, in addition to those numbers we also calculated and determined the following per year savings;

Volume composted = 127,400 lbs per year

Total Annual Energy Savings from Composting 10.19

Metric tons of CO2 equivalent saved = 44.1o

Gallons of Gasoline saved = 3,847

Number of trips from Boston to NYC in a Prius = 422.28

Recycling – Cardboard

Volume recycled per year = 3.12 Tons

Total Annual Energy Savings – Cardboard = 14,629.68 KWh

Metric tons of CO2 Equivalent saved = 11.40

Gallons of Gasoline saved = 1,291

Number of trips from Boston to NYC in a Prius = 141.71

Co-Mingled (Mainly Glass) Recycling

Volume recycled per year = 34,320 lbs per year

Total Annual Energy Savings – Glass = 13,573.56 KWh

Metric Tons CO2 Equivalent Saved = 10.60

Gallons of Gasoline saved = 1,198

Number of trips from Boston to NYC in a Prius = 131.50

The result of Composting and Recycling per year at Taranta has help the reduction of Carbon emissions. The total amount of Metric Tons CO2 Equivalent Saved is 66.10 only by composting and recycling. Amount of gasoline saved 6,336 gal, and 695 trips from Boston to NYC in a Prius.

Composting Stage 1

jduarte — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 17:20:41 +0000

Today will start our compsoting program, will start with back of the house, kitchen scraps from food preparation, compostable paper, etc. A compost bin has been provided by savethatstuff.com and we will schedule pick ups depening on the amount of compostable material we produce. The cost of compost removal is by weight, they will take a weight measurement when they pick up and then bill accordingly. As soon as we run out of our straw, plastic tootpicks, we will order compostable drink straws and toothpicks. This will be the last step to become a certified green restaurant by dinegreen.com