Hello Mr. Dmitriew, thank you for giving me the opportunity to call you today. As I told you in my e-mail, I am studying on zero waste and am doing a case study on Westfield Mall’s food courts with a few comparatives. Can you tell me what you know about The Food Emporium and The Food Emporium Express?
Westfield Mall has a unique situation, one of the most unique I’ve seen. IEM, they’re a national trash firm, they have a contract with Westfield so they manage the trash for them. They are some hiccups but they’re doing a pretty good job. The durable thing is they have washable silverware which is admirable. Thankfully, most of the food bins go to compost. The staff are trained so if there are water bottles in the bins, they take it out. They have a hydrapulper which is designed to take food scraps and paper. It gets mixed with water and becomes viscous.
Eventually the pipe connected to the hydropaulper ends up going into the compost pipe, so there’s a watering system that removes the water, gets treated, and gets put back into the system to be reused.
What is the recovery rate of food scraps at The Food Emporium?
I would say 85, almost 90%.
So I noticed that The Food Emporium Express however, uses disposable plates and forks with only one type of waste bin in sight. Is there a reason for this difference with The Food Emporium?
We weren’t involved so the recovery rate is significantly nonexistent.
What can you tell me about Stonestown Galleria as I know their food court has it all with the three colored bins, signs, and even a demonstration video.
At Stonrstown, its a whole different management firm. There is no contract and nobody is bussing those tables. Consequently, it is more contaminated than The Food Emporium. This is because, the thing is, with any public system, there is a challenge. There is a turnover and a lot of staff but people don’t know the San Francisco system. When they started, we initally had a staff monitoring it. Right now, they completely rely on participants.
What is the recovery rate of Stonestown?
I would say 40-50%, 60% if I’m being optimistic.
In your opinion, what do you think would work on striving towards Zero Waste?
Yeah its an ongoing thing. For one. trying to get everyone, all the vendors to buy compostable silverware but everyone has different needs. Another would be issuing fines to tenants who don’t participate in composting and recycling and having a gatekeeper within to check if they have the right material. For Westfield, we’ve been encouraging management to do some signage. The corporate office avoids the three bins for aesthetic reasons. They say that no design works for them.
Thank you for taking the time to discuss this with me Mr. Dmitriew, I really appreciate it.
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