News

San Fran Panera recycling 75% of waste

September 10, 2012

A San Francisco Panera Bread is proof that a 75-percent recycling rate is possible.

The restaurant, at 301 King St., implemented a recycling program last year that diverts 75 percent of its waste from California landfills, which falls in line with the San Francisco Commission on Environment's goal for Zero Waste, according to a press release.

"When the store opened in April of 2007, we started out by just recycling and composting the waste from the kitchen, but our garbage bill was still around $3,500 per month," Erin Luikart, GM at the King Street Panera Bread, said in the release. "We implemented lobby recycling in the Winter of 2009, so our customers could sort their food waste and recycle items such as plastic cups. That brought our monthly expenses for waste removal down to about $2,800 per month."

In the fall of 2011, Mike Thies, head of environmental sustainability for Panera Bread, recommended that the King Street Panera Bread purchase an indoor trash compactor through Global Trash Solutions, a waste consulting company out of Palm Beach, Fla.

"The trash compactor had the most dramatic effect on our monthly expenses. We were able to reduce our volume of trash and recyclables by more than half, and reduce our monthly spending on waste removal by more than $1,000 per month," Luikart said.

Panera Bread's program has inspired change at other locations in parts of the country where comprehensive recycling programs are available including Gig Harbor and Federal Way, Wash., Davis, Calif., and the newly opened restaurants in New York City.

Read more about sustainability.