Personal Project Final Update: Evaluation of the Recycling Program at Little Tibet

The greening of Anyetsang's Little Tibet continues...

Now that recycling has been going on at Little Tibet for almost a month now (we started just before Thanksgiving), it's time to evaluate how the program is working, and what changes might be made to make it work better.

What's working well?

Overall, the recycling efforts have been quite successful! The waitstaff have been very compliant with the new procedure, and while I do occasionally come into work and see a wine bottle in the garbage can, for the most part people have been recycling as they should. This was honestly not a surprise to me, since most of my waitstaff peers are environmentally conscious and recycle at home as well. Having a convenient recycling program at Little Tibet further confirms the idea that recycling is highly dependant on convenience!

I estimate that our recycling efforts at the restaurant are now diverting upwards of 80 wine bottles from the garbage each month. This is encouraging! According to the Recycling-Revolution organization:

    Recycling just one glass bottle saves the same amount of energy that is needed to power a   
       100-watt light bulb for 4 hours, or a CFL for 20 hours

    Glass takes over 4,000 years or longer to decompose in a landfill


Recycling glass causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when new bottles are made from raw materials

With these statistics in mind, it  makes our recycling efforts at Little Tibet seem all the more valuable!


What changes need to happen in order to make the recycling program work better?

Overall the recycling program at the restaurant has been a success, but one aspect that is in need of improvement is the transportation of recyclables from the restaurant to the homes of me and the other participating waitstaff (currently two others are helping me take recyclables from the restaurant).

Transporting the recyclables from the restaurant to my home is a bit of challenge since my mode of transportation is by bicycle.
Typically I can take home between six and eight bottles at a time in my backpack (more if I don't have many books with me that day), which is doable, but also highly dependent on the weather (I don't particularly like biking in the rain with a heavy backpack full of glass- it doesn't seem like a safe choice, so I avoid it!) Also, once it starts getting snowy, I don't think that I will be able to transport the bottles via bike. This means that I will need one of my co-workers to drive me home with the recyclables. So far, this has happened twice, actually, and was quite convenient since I live on the way to my coworker's house. However, I would like to have the recycling program be as carbon-neutral as possible, so I inherently dislike the idea of transporting the recyclables via car.

Ultimately, I would like to see all of the Fourth St restaurants collaborating together on recycling, so I am hoping that in the future there will be recycling facilities on Fourth St, which will eliminate the issue of difficulty in transporting the recyclables.