Garbage is inevitable in the restaurant and bar business. Kitchen employees throw onion skins and meat fat into the bin almost instinctively. Plastic wraps and slips that were once used to protect sheets are put in black bags for garbage day collection. The package orders the plastic bags and then discards them after customers use them to take the leftovers home. However, at the Brooklyn Rhodora wine bar and natural restaurant, taking out the trash works a little differently. The new restaurant is one of the few establishments in several cities that have begun to operate under a zero waste ethos, which means that they do not send garbage or food waste entering their business to a landfill. There is not even a traditional dump on the premises. The objective is to reduce the environmental impact of restaurants while running a profitable company, with a possible additional benefit of solidifying their good ecological faith among the demanding clientele. Such radical idealism comes with challenges, which include finding producers and distributors that can handle requests such as compostable packaging and discover how to recycle broken appliances.

"We are in the business of serving people," said Henry Rich, co-owner of Rhodora. "And it feels incongruous to take care of someone for one night and try to show them a great moment, and then outsource the waste and carbon footprint of that night in people."

A recent The ReFED report, a nonprofit organization focused on reducing food waste, found that restaurants in the United States generate about 11.4 million tons of food waste annually, or $ 25.1 billion in costs. The Environmental Protection Agency has reported that food and packaging waste accounts for almost 45 percent of the materials sent to landfills in the United States. The reason why zero waste "is not a conventional concept, because it is not seen in gastronomy or hospitality in a conventional way, is because we are realizing it," said Chef Douglas McMaster, who directs the waste. Free restaurant in London Silo and advised the owners of Rhodora. "We are seeing the reality of wasting as much as we are." Rich and Halley Chambers, deputy director of their Oberon restaurant group and co-owner of Rhodora, spent almost 10 months and $ 50,000 investigating and transforming their Fort Greene space into a neighborhood location that could operate without any garbage collection.

Many of its usual vendors came out who wrapped the deliveries in disposable plastic. Tools arrived to help in their waste reduction efforts: a cardboard shredder to turn wine boxes into composting material, a dishwashing facility that converts salt into soap, beeswax wrap instead of plastic wrap . "It's not arcane secret knowledge," Rich said. "It's just a couple of things that are very specific, and you need to redesign how you think" operating a restaurant or bar.

Much of the planning time was devoted to the search for distributors and producers who could join Rhodora's mission. A cheesemaker offered to remove the plastic wrap before delivery and then throw it away.

A handful of businesses were able to accommodate unorthodox restrictions, including She Wolf Bakery and her sister butcher, Marlow & Daughters, who deliver reusable plastic containers filled with freshly baked breads and jars of pickled vegetables and eggs through Cargo passengers Bike Collective Another company, A Priori Distribution, switched to the use of compostable packaging and paper tape by leaving aluminum fish cans.

"It's certainly unique, and that's new to us," said Caroline Fidanza, culinary director of the Marlow Collective, which includes She Wolf and Marlow & Daughters. "There is a certain amount of that that is very feasible. It is more difficult to pack things than not to pack them at some level."

In addition to limiting the amount of spoiled inventory ordered by Rhodora, Rich said, the bar eliminated any type of chef position, in part to avoid creating "a top-down type of environment, where other things were considered besides zero waste" .

Rhodora staff members, who rotate duties such as waiting for customers and popping sardine cans to prepare food orders, congregate weekly to generate simple menu ideas based on what is available in the dozen vendors approved of the bar. Cheese boards and mushroom broth are basic. "Having a small staff playing a central role, we can be more agile than a normal restaurant," Chambers said.

The paper menus, which feature a mini essay on the green mission of the restaurant, are sent to the compost pile when they become obsolete or tattered. Everything that is left in the customers' dishes is poured into collection containers in the kitchen, which are introduced into the commercial quality composter hidden inside the cabins adjacent to the bar. (Rhodora does not serve meat, which is more difficult to compost, although its composter processes whatever fish is left.)

Natural wine bottles and most other non-compostable containers are disposed of for recycling through Royal Waste Services, which according to the restaurant also accepted broken glass. Corks are donated to ReCork, a recycling program that reuses material for shoe soles and yoga blocks.

There are financial incentives for restaurants to invest in these zero waste practices, with One study found that restaurants save an average of $ 7 for every $ 1 invested in food waste reduction practices in the kitchen. The National Restaurant Association found that about half of the diners say they are beginning to consider the efforts of establishments to recycle and reduce food waste when choosing where to eat. But many establishments operate with reduced profit margins, and it is not always immediately obvious how programs to reduce food waste can translate into financial gains, said Angel Veza, director of the Hospitality Advisory of First Principle Group, a global advisory firm . Many chefs and restaurant owners see little incentive to seek more environmentally friendly ways to order ingredients, let alone pay an additional $ 800 as Rhodora does for a TerraCycle container. The company converts hard-to-recycle garbage left by customers, such as chewing gum or plastic wrap, into new products. (Rhodora has a second container placed in the bathroom for used hygiene products). "If they prosper, they make money, they don't have a reason to change," Veza said. "Restaurants also close all the time, so the last thing they are going to think about is:" Am I going to use single-use plastic? "

Although Rhodora strives to ensure that its space is zero waste, the system is not perfect. It has not been determined, for example, what is the response that avoids the landfill to get rid of a dishwasher without repair.

"I don't want to pretend we have everything resolved," Rich said.

The first batch of compost will be used to fertilize its mini gardens at the top of the cabins outside the wine bar, and possibly the Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm in the Navy Yard. A Rhodora spokeswoman also said that, compared to Mettā, the former Brooklyn restaurant company in Rich, the business had saved an average of $ 300 a month in part by eliminating its garbage collection. (Ms. Chambers estimated that Mettā, which promoted itself as a carbon-neutral and low-waste restaurant, produced 7,000 pounds of trash per month.) "We are at a crucial point," Rich said. "The hope is that maybe we can influence and inspire some people from above and below to learn what is zero waste, because it is wonderfully simple not to have garbage and not send it to the landfill."