Greener Than Thou is a feature usually reserved for our sister site Curbed, where it's much more prevalent, but as any diner can attest, restaurants are no stranger to the arms race that is going green. Notice a new green trend? No paper waste needed.
Dozens upon dozens of San Francisco restaurants embrace—hell, boast—their environment-friendliness. Most make a point to highlight their organic/sustainable/biodynamic fare on the menu while some, like Mixt Greens (pictured, right) strictly abide by the "green building" standards set forth by the USGBC. Those floors at Mixt Greens? That's formaldehyde free plywood, baby.
And now, there's a new way for restaurants to help out the environment and the like:
Starting this week, the SFPUC [San Francisco Public Utilities Commission], along with BioSolar, will start collecting grease from the 40-plus restaurants that have already signed on to the program, SFPUC spokesperson Tony Winnicker said. The collected waste will then be converted into environmentally friendly bio-diesel fuel at Bay Area bio-diesel processing facilities.The benefits of the new grease program are anticipated to be twofold: eliminate the waste that is destroying the city's sewers while simultanesouly providing a new source of vehicle fuel. Other tidbits: $1.3 million has been set aside for this grease-recycling program and the initial estimates are to convert about 50,000 gallons of grease per month.
And yes, this is strikingly similar to that Simpsons episode.
· S.F. grease-to-fuel plan gets cookin’ [Examiner]
· Greener Than Thou Archives [Curbed SF]
