Zero Waste Initiative
Liz Wahl, Food & Beverage Director, Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp.
President Steamboat Colorado Restaurant Association , Vice Chair Yampa Valley Sustainability Council
In June 2009, Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. made a commitment to its community and guests to lead the way in waste and recycling programs in Northern Colorado. The expected result of the initiative is to reduce and recapture waste, bring awareness to the public, advocate for a better way for everyone to handle waste, get all biodegradeable items out of the landfill and therefore mitigate all methane gas created from the aneorobic breakdown of biodegradeable waste. Spearheaded by Liz Wahl and Jolie Lemoine, the idea soon gained momentum and became the Zero Waste Initiative. The Initiative was developed from the ground up, reaching out to the community and resort employees to collaborate with different entities to pursue commercial composting in the Yampa Valley. The initiative's goal is to prevent compostable and recyclable materials from reaching the local landfill and to reuse items as much as possible and in as many areas as possible. In all our restaurants, employees make sure the waste produced by the resort and at resort events is properly discarded in separate waste bins for recycling, composting and landfill trash. The single stream recycling is brought to Waste Management while the compost and trash go to the Milner Landfill where Twin Enviro Services is in the process of developing a commercial composting facility. The Ski Resort is participating in a pilot program with the compost facility and we hope to branch out quickly. The compost produced will be used to amend local soils, improve the sustainability of local farming and is now available at the Milner facility.
The Zero Waste Initiative attacks the waste problem from two primary angles. The first is the top-down approach which operates on the simple theory that buying only recyclable and biodegradable items makes it is easier to keep waste out of the landfill. Some examples of purchasing changes include corn cups, cutlery made from compostable cornstarch, non bleached pulp plates, paper napkins, soup containers, and coffee cups. Once the top-down approach was initiated, the bottom-up approach began. Bottom-up is primarily an educational program and this is where the Zero Hero team came in. Volunteers from the community, visible in their bright green Zero Hero shirts, create a presence at public events and help educate the public on how to properly dispose of their waste and monitor disposal to ensure the bins are not contaminated.
As the initiative grew and proved viable, the ski resort began to influence the community to follow suit. Several local events started to green their waste stream including the Concert Committee, the Family Fun Fest and the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association. It is the goal of the initiative that everyone will begin to think of their home, business and event with the Zero Waste Initiative in mind. At the next Steamboat community event, look for the bright green shirts and always think twice about what you throw away.
Our experience tells us that constantly improving and adapting our environmental policies can be a challenging process but a rewarding one with huge incentives for guests and employees.
Our employees proudly do the heavy lifting of this operation and feel committed to our shift to a more sustainable plan of doing business. They gladly help educate our guests on why we are heading towards Zero Waste.
Year one saw many challenges but was well worth the effort. We are working closely with the composting facility to make sure items that are supposed to biodegrade are in fact doing so in our environment. Below is our information showing the increase in recycling and reduction of trash year over year. Our goal is to incoporate more dish washing facilities on the mountain and have many more reusabe, cutlery, plates, cups etc.
We want to keep reducing our landfill by at least ten percent yearly until we get to Zero. We do this by ramping up composting and recycling efforts. Our goal is to keep educating ourselves and the public and to identify areas we can change to keep reducing waste and recapaturing resources.
Features
The Recycling Issue
Recycling Mythbusters
Sorting and Collecting 101
Conservation-wise Construction
Departments
Decor & Style
Money & Finances