D.C.'s Home-Grown Dirt: Composting, Entering a New Culinary Era
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure — or, in this case, gold dirt.
At Equinox, we’ve operated from the heart since our humble beginnings in 1999. We chose the name Equinox to impart our desire to cook & eat with the seasons. In the beginning, the focus was on supporting local growers in our Mid-Atlantic region to avoid sourcing food from far away, thereby minimizing our carbon footprint. Over the years, we have evolved to adopt a more holistic approach, considering the full cycle of all aspects of our food: was it raised humanely? Was it grown locally, with sustainable practices and ethical working conditions? Can we decrease our food waste? At Equinox Restaurant we purchase with our ethos, something every consumer has the ability to do - we refer to it as “the power of the purse.”
In 2019, in honor of our 20th anniversary, we decided to kick into a higher gear of trash consciousness so we needed to understand just how much waste we were generating. With the help of organizations like (r)evolve, we did some research. Our waste patterns were professionally assessed to give us tangible insights and guidelines in order to implement a plan. With additional assistance from small like-minded startups such as Pluvar, we learned to collect all of our scraps on-site and compost them. It may sound easy but convincing our staff to compost properly was a real challenge (a sentence about the cultural differences a sentence here?) Equinox is a small restaurant and we don’t have a lot of room for separate bins, which initially was a cause of concern when asking our staff to take the extra time to sort waste appropriately during busy meal times. Their willingness to change and staunch commitment to our beliefs and vision has allowed Equinox to transform. Everyone has adapted and takes pride in what we are all doing together.
After some initial adjusting, we found ourselves dramatically reducing the amount of things we were throwing away. As a bonus, our monthly trash bill went way down. We hosted our first Not Wasted Dinner in 2019 to share our vision with our dining and restaurant community. The goal was to spread awareness for attainable sustainability practices. The dinner featured guest chefs who created dishes made from food that would have otherwise been tossed. Think BeetTop Hummus, Tempura of Squash Blossoms, Carrot Top Pesto, Sweet & Spicy Kale Stems or Homemade Dried Lemon Zest. The dinner was a sold-out hit and so we had the ratification we needed to continue - people will pay for trash!
$408 billion in food is thrown away each year. Especially with the cost of food at an all-time high today - it makes good economic sense as well. It’s time to do our part to change that. In May we added a new on-site tool to the mix and this game-changer came with the ability to compost on-site. Thanks to a grant in partnership with Washington D.C., the implementation of a composting machine designed specifically for on-site use further minimizes our carbon footprint and helps us impact positive change in our community. By composting, we eliminate GHGe and deadly air pollution from hauling away refuse, mitigate existing rat and smell problems that are exacerbated from storing food waste in dumpsters/toters, regenerate our local soils making them more productive and extreme weather resilient and our communities healthier, and implement circular economy behavior that addresses structural inequities.
The goal? Twofold: Becoming a zero-waste restaurant, and helping our community of restaurants go green, too. According to the USDA, between 30-40% of our country’s food supply is wasted. We think it’s time to do our part to change that.
What might appear at first to some as a wasted effort (no pun of course) which could hardly make a difference when looking at the industry as a whole, but in our small alley of the world we’ve seen how it's possible and we have begun to work our way through it, step by step.
The real game-changer came with the ability to compost on-site. Thanks to a grant in partnership with Washington D.C., the implementation of a composting machine designed specifically for on-site use further minimizes our carbon footprint and helps us impact positive change in our community. By composting, we eliminate GHGe and deadly air pollution from hauling away refuse, mitigate existing rat and smell problems that are exacerbated from storing food waste in dumpsters/toters, regenerate our local soils making them more productive and extreme weather resilient and our communities healthier, and implement circular economy behavior that addresses structural inequities.
The goal of our composting project is to raise awareness among the restaurant clients and community on our “food waste to food resource” program to inspire composting efforts amongst clients and fellow restaurant owners. We track/monitor the efficacy and functionality of the composting process via a database populated by the back-of-the-house staff to include metrics like composting temperatures, amount of food resource added, and total compost created and used for regenerating our local soils.
The “golden dirt” goes right back into our community to close the loop, so to speak. It goes to amend, fertilize, and regenerate the soil for local landscaping, not only making our city more beautiful but helping to create a healthier city environment. Our compost is also shared with local community gardens and urban farmers serving the city.
We want to show the world that sustainability is possible in fine dining, and in restaurants anywhere for that matter. In partnership with our local government and in service of our community, our mission is to be an example for fellow entrepreneurs that serving bold, innovative cuisine while implementing environmental initiatives and sensible business practices is easier than one might think.
The Trash Diaries will give you a look behind-the-scenes inside our kitchen to break down misconceptions about zero waste and take you along on our journey.
Enjoy!
Chef Todd & Ellen
