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BAR AND RESTAURANT RECYCLING CASE STUDY: |
IRREGARDLESS CAFE |
| Recycling Since: |
1990s |
| Type of facility: |
casual dining, serving food, beer, wine and mixed drinks |
| Serves: |
80-100 for lunch; seats 98 people |
| Recycles: |
plastic, glass, cans, jugs, cardboard |
| Average cost of service: |
about $35/pickup for recycling |
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The Irregardless Café has recycled for a long time because, as it recognized early on, “it seems like the right thing to do.” When the program first got started one of the employees would take all the recyclables home or to a drop off location. That employee has since gone on to start his own recycling company. |
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Recycling at the Café is as easy as 1-2-3. Servers place empty bottles and cans from tables in a tall blue bin right inside the door to the kitchen area. The bartenders have their own bins behind the bar - a tall blue bin for recycling and a small bucket for trash next to it.
When the containers inside are full, servers take them outside, down a flight of stairs to the recycling containers and separate the materials into five large steel barrels. It works easily, and any issues are addressed during daily staff meetings when the team gets together to talk about their delicious specials each day.
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Trash is collected from an eight-yard Dumpster once a week and recycling, which includes two containers for cardboard, is collected once every other week. Even in this small downtown hotspot space has not been a problem, and the managers rarely even hear or see the collection company when they swing by to get the recyclables.
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| Interviewed: |
Terry, Mgr. |
Phone: |
(919) 833-8898 |
| Location: |
901 W Morgan Street
Raleigh, NC 27603 |
Web: |
www.irregardless.com |
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August 2007
For a PDF of this case study, click here.
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