The Truth about "Green" Catering
What does ‘green’ really mean in the catering industry?
By Shelby Sewell, Executive Chef and Owner of Foodz Catering and Acalia Events, Seattle, Washington
As a caterer in Seattle, I cannot help but be concerned about the Green movement. Our global food system constitutes the single largest source of pollution on the planet – due in a large part to the pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and fertilizers typically used in the production of plants and animals for human consumption.
Certainly, we all know eating locally grown organic food is a win win — helping to lower our "carbon footprint" while providing our bodies with more nutritious and better-tasting food. Seattle is particularly lucky to have so many neighborhoods with local farmer markets, and grocery stores featuring organic food sections and products readily at hand.
However buying and providing organic products to our clientele is just the first step in a long list of what all caterers need to be doing, to be truly earth-friendly. We can compost. We can recycle. We can even sell our used cooking oil for use in biodiesel vehicles. All of these go a long way towards reducing the "carbon footprint" of the catering industry.
Yet there is one aspect of being a "green" caterer that is not only daunting, but terribly misleading. That aspect is packaging.
Extra packaging is simply wasteful. In addition to millions of individual plastic water bottles and those terrible foam "to-go" containers filling our landfills, our busy lives seem to require enormous amounts of plastic containers. Fortunately the City of Seattle is making foam containers illegal effective January 2009, however that ban is likely to increase the use of those clear plastic deli-style containers -- which are often non-recyclable in the Seattle area despite their "recycled number" on the bottom. (If there is no buyer for a particular type of plastic, that type of plastic item can not be recycled; check those bi-annual color "Yes and No" recyclable mailers you get from your waste collection agency each year if you weren't already aware). To me, it seems like we're just replacing one form of "plastic" with another.
(Hooray to the City for also charging consumers a fee for plastic grocery bags... let's hope that truly does discourage their use in favor of reusable or cloth shopping bags).
One option to reducing these types of clear plastic "to-go" and "deli" containers is to use corn-based, biodegradable boxes, plates, and forks. On the surface, this seems like an excellent idea. Certainly the manufacturers of these products would like to you to think they are a viable "green resource," and there are even some caterers who are marketing these products as a ‘no waste’ catering option. But truth be told, I personally believe this is ‘green washing’.
Stop for a moment and think about where the corn for these products is grown – in the Midwestern United States. After harvest, it is shipped to the ocean ports of our country, placed on container ships, and sailed around the world to China or Taiwan, where it is processed using who knows how many pollutants, before being shipped back on those same container ships a second time, and finally trucked for delivery across America. In terms of sheer quantity of fossil fuel, carbon monoxide, and chemicals used to produce these products, this seems like a poor use of resources, not to mention an excess of unnecessary waste to me.
One company I spoke to has at least begun to address this conundrum: they buy carbon credits to offset the emissions produced in making this product, which is at least a step in the right direction.
So what can we as caterers and individuals do?
Stop buying such products. If nothing else, demand they instead be made in America where factory emissions are (somewhat) better controlled and trans-global shipping is eliminated.
When it's time to select a menu for your next function, consider luncheon buffets rather than "boxed" lunches (even the plastic forks are wrapped in plastic in most boxed lunches!).
Reduce the amount of water necessary to wash multiple plates by choosing passed hors d'oeuvres, and serve them on large platters made from recycled or renewable resources (I love to collect platters made from bamboo, recycled school blackboard slate, recycled glass platters, ceramic, and cuts of brushed aluminum).
Certainly wherever possible, buy in bulk -- although many "bulk warehouses" are some of the biggest culprits in overpackaging -- so get vocal about it! Reject items with unnecessary packaging and let them know why you did.
Choose biodegradable soap for your dishwashers (be they commercial or home). As caterers, send out your linens to washing companies with the same high standards in terms of greywater recovery and biodegradable products.
Large catered meals requiring delivery can be made in biodiesel vans and trucks (I'm looking forward to the day we can refuel our vehicles from our own used cooking oil).
Every little bit adds up, and whether you're a caterer or a consumer, it's up to every one of us to make as much of a difference as we possibly can.
Shelby Sewell is the Executive Chef and Owner of Foodz Catering and Acalia Events and Receptions in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. In business since 1997, Foodz Catering is a full-service catering company specializing in the artful presentation of globally inspired menus for events tailored personally to each client’s vision. Acalia offers an elegant setting with glass atrium ceilings, hammered copper bar, slate dance floor, a privately gated outdoor terrace, and ample adjacent parking, suitable for groups of 50 to 150 depending on the season. Foodzcatering.com • acaliaevents.com
