Restaurants and Recycling

In an effort to get me to stay awake and return to the schedule of a normal adult human, the long-suffering spouse and I just went out looking for coffee. I'll probably still fall asleep in a few minutes, but we did have an interesting conversation. We went to Starbucks, where there was no fair trade coffee in stock -again. So, we had juice. The juice was in bottles. We instinctively took the labels off and looked for a recycling receptacle. Nope.

I would have just rolled my eyes and thrown the bottle away, but Dave is more assertive. He asked the manager if there was recycling and sure enough, it's there for the staff. Which makes a certain amount of sense. But how hard would it be for them to put out recycling containers for the rest of us? I do know that it would generate more work, but it would also generate good will and a positive environmental impact.

We actually considered the possibility that there is some rule prohibiting recycling in restaurants, since we so rarely see it. But then I remembered that the bar we go to when we are in that kind of mood does recycle beer bottles. In enormous quantity. You should SEE their recycle bin! In fact, in some municipalities bars and restaurants are required to recycle glass.

What's missing (or my brain is still too fuzzy to do an effective google search) is a list of restaurants that have a particularly good reputation for recycling. This is the make-or-break justice issue for the long-suffering spouse. I'm not sure that it's mine, but it is important. Is there such a list? Or does someone here just know of a restaurant that is good about it? How might we advocate for improvement on this issue -after I take another nap?

Tags: activism environmentalism