Retail Notebook: Waste not, and save, businesses find

When it comes to recycling, many retailers struggle with what to do with tons of
cardboard, mountains of glass bottles and piles of plastic.

By KATHY MULADY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

But Tom Olsen, manager at Gordon Biersch Brewing Co. at Pacific Place has
another problem — what to do with about 1,500 pounds of something that looks
like soggy cereal left over from making beer for the restaurant.

In some other cities, Gordon Biersch managers have forged partnerships with
farmers who collect the mush to feed to their cattle and hogs. Olsen hasn’t been
able to find someone yet who is interested in the spent grain, mainly a mix of
barley and malt that has been boiled in water.

"It takes a lot of grain to brew beer," said Olsen.

After brewing, the grain is removed from the brewing kettle, scooped into bins,
hauled downstairs to the Pacific Place garbage and tossed out.

Olsen would much rather give it away to someone who could use it.

Not all retailers have garbage challenges like Olsen, but many are focusing on
improving their recycling programs and coming up with creative ways for reducing
waste and garbage.

Last July, Sea-Tac International Airport, working with a consulting company,
revised its recycling program. With some new bins and a lot more focus, the
airport increased the amount of trash it recycles from 8.25 tons in January 2001
to 18.72 tons in December 2001.

The amount of garbage taken from the airport to the landfill tumbled from 491 tons
in August 2000 to 400 tons in August 2001. By January this year, the airport was
hauling just 222 tons of garbage to the landfill.

Although air travel fell after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Doug Holbrook, airport
utilities manager, said travelers are spending more time in the airport and buying
more newspapers and beverages.

"The amount of garbage per person is up, they are spending more time here, yet
we are sending less to the landfill," Holbrook said.

He said the new focus on recycling is expected to save the airport about $80,000
a year.

Holbrook said the airport tries to complete the recycling loop by buying products,
such as hand towels for restrooms and copy machine paper, made out of
recycled materials.

University Village is also revising its recycling program, but it fumbled a bit earlier
this month when large recycling bins sprinkled around the center suddenly
disappeared, angering some tenants.

Susie Plummer, general manager for University Village, said there was never a
plan to do away with recycling. She said a new program is being put in place with
a large compactor that tenants can use with key cards. Tenants will be billed for
their use.

Bruce Bentley, customer relations manager at Rabanco-Emerald City Disposal,
which provides garbage and recycling services for University Village, said the
shopping center’s previous recycling system wasn’t working. Tenants were mixing
food and other garbage with paper and glass, making it next to impossible to
recycle.

Bentley said bins were often overflowing. It wasn’t just ugly and messy, it also
raised concerns about rodents.

"Essentially University Village is moving to a consolidated program instead of a
ragtag collection of containers at 10 different locations," said Bentley.

A "green team" of University Village tenants also is being organized. The group
will work with the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s Business and Industry
Resource Venture to develop recycling programs.

The chamber’s resource venture program, in partnership with Seattle Public
Utilities, offers free information and counseling on environmental issues for
businesses.

"Recycling is a hands-on activity and requires persistence by property managers
and an oversight group," said Bill Anderson, director of the chamber program.

"Businesses in Seattle do well, but they by no means have reached their
potential; that’s why we’re still in business," he said.

Anderson said the chamber program can help retailers solve recycling problems.

They once matched a store owner who was at a loss about what to do with
mountains of Styrofoam packing peanuts arriving with shipments to his business.
Anderson found a packaging store that welcomed the donation.

Pacific Place in downtown Seattle, with 45 retailers and four restaurants, keeps
its garbage and recycling bins in a single location. Tenants there also use key
cards and are billed based on their use.

Lynn Beck, a spokeswoman for Pacific Place, said the downtown shopping mall
recycles 3.2 tons of cardboard and 6 tons of glass each month. She said the
cardboard compactor costs tenants less to use than the garbage compactor.

"There is an economic incentive to recycle rather than just throwing it in the
trash," said Beck.

When it comes to recycling, Seattle just seems more into it.

"We have one of the most mature recycling systems in the country," said Ben
Packard, director of environmental affairs for Starbucks. "In some communities we
are lucky if we can get cardboard recycled.

"We are trying to work on some recycling initiatives with retailers in other
communities."

A few years ago, Starbucks had a problem, much like Olsen’s grain predicament
at Gordon Biersch, trying to figure out how to get rid of the tons of coffee grounds
the company ends up with at the end of the day. The Seattle coffee company
partially solved the problem by offering the grounds to home gardeners for mixing
into their vegetable plots.

About 500 of 4,240 Starbucks stores in North America participate in the program,
said Packard.

The company has also figured out a way of reducing some of its cardboard waste
by transporting baked goods to its stores in a reusable tote rather than in
cardboard boxes.

"It just takes a little bit of thinking about, and making a commitment to it," said
Anderson at the Seattle chamber.

P-I reporter Kathy Mulady can be reached at 206-448-8131 or
[email protected]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/67289_retail20.shtml