BAR AND RESTAURANT RECYCLING CASE STUDY:

PEPPER'S

Pepper’s restaurant in Boone, North Carolina was established in 1975, serving deli style sandwiches in a relaxed atmosphere. Pepper’s has been recycling since 1988. Jack Pepper purchased a truck to haul off his recycling before the Town of Boone began its program.

The manager of the restaurant, “Jenn,” says that her restaurant usually serves about 180 customers for lunch, and in the summer months, it serves around 300 to 400 customers per day. Pepper’s was one of the first restaurants in Boone to establish a comprehensive recycling program. Jenn is proud of Pepper’s recycling ethic and it shows on the home page of their Web site (see address below). When asked why Pepper’s recycles, Jenn says that it is because “recycling is the right thing to do.”

Pepper’s recycles glass beer and wine bottles, tin cans, corrugated cardboard and aluminum cans. Employees are well attuned to recycling because many of them are ASU students with a strong commitment to the environment.

Bottles and cans are collected internally in pickle buckets and then taken out to the back of the restaurant and placed in the three, 96-gallon rollout bins provided by a waste hauling and recycling company that operates a nearby material recycling center. The recycler collects the contents of the containers on a weekly basis, using a divided collection truck with automatic cart dumpers.

Pepper’s pays $60 per month to have its recycling containers picked up on a weekly basis.