Composting Reduces Hotel's Waste Stream by One Ton a Month

A ton a month. That is how much food waste will no longer be sent to landfills by the Richmond Hilton Garden Inn (Va.) The effort is part of an initiative to "Go Greener." How did the Hilton Garden Inn do it? John Cario, general manager of the hotel, explained that his property established a composting program in January that led to a weeklong audit of the hotel’s waste generation and recycling efforts. The audit included weighing all materials that were being disposed and conducting a pilot collection of all food prep wastes. The hotel even went to the effort of a one-day assessment of every single item in every bag of trash. The audit determined that approximately 20 to 25 percent of the total waste generated by the hotel was food waste.

At that point, the Hilton Garden Inn committed to composting all food prep waste. The waste audit further determined that the hotel was recycling only about 12 percent of its waste materials. Once all of the new recycling and compost efforts are in place, Cario said the hotel expects to divert more than 60 percent of all waste from operations. “The waste audit was an invaluable step for us in our greening effort, and we are incredibly proud to be the first hotel in the region to begin composting our food waste,” Cario said.

New recycling bins and signage are now being placed throughout the hotel and its meeting spaces. In addition, the hotel is now working with its staff and vendors to reduce the amount of waste generated during daily operations. The Hilton Garden Inn partnered with RVA Green Management Services to help develop its Green Program and to conduct the waste stream audit and composting pilot. The compost is picked up by NOPE (Natural Organics Process Enterprises).

“To be the very first hotel in the region to compost food wastes is an exciting step forward,” said Tom Griffin of RVA Green Management Services. “This is a clear indication of how committed the management and staff of the Hilton Garden Inn are to its new Green Program and its goals to reduce waste.”

The Richmond Hilton Garden Inn joins a long list of hotels that have committed to food waste composting in an effort to reduce their overall waste streams. Go to www.greenlodgingnews.com and search on "compost" to find others.