Food recycling and composting have been slowly added to the menu of the most sustainable hotels and resorts worldwide.
The most recent include the Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis Monarch Beach resorts, which have signed up for the city of Dana Point's pilot food recycling program, along with the Salt Creek Grille. The program is aimed at reducing collected waste and business costs as disposal fees for regular trash in Orange County, California, are set to increase 36 percent per ton in July, reports Orange County Register.
The program will also help Dana Point meet its goal to divert at least 50 percent of collected waste from landfills by recycling as required by all California cities.
The pilot program is funded by a one-year, $400,000 grant from OC Waste & Recycling. The Ritz and St. Regis will use 20 and 18 bins, respectively, for their food waste, while Salt Creek Grille will have eight bins. Waste will be picked up three times a week.
Total tonnage collected from Dana Point businesses will be posted monthly at the city's Web site under Solid Waste & Recycling. South Orange County cities are expected to recycle up to 20 tons of food waste every week.
In other hotel recycling news, the Cypress Hotel in Cupertino was recently recognized by the city's Chamber of Commerce for sustainable business practices, which includes its recycling program that has expanded to phones, batteries and composting food waste, reports MercuryNews.com.
Other hotels that have recently added food recycling and composting to their sustainable measures include Comfort Inn & Suites Logan International Airport, Seaport Hotel and Seaport World Trade Center, and Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago.
