Photo by Susannah Moore
Health and safety rules, plus the increase in take-out food, have caused some environmental concerns and extra costs for restaurants.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, like many, Alexandria's Neighborhood Restaurant Group (NRG) decided to shut down all of their restaurants — Evening Star Cafe, Buzz Bakeshop, Columbia Firehouse, Vermilion and Rustico.
At the same time, they wanted to find a way to retain as many employees as possible while also providing much-needed access to food, beer, wine, spirits and pantry items to their customers.
With their existing stock and already established sources for these items, they decided to start an online delivery shop called Neighborhood Provisions. An added bonus was that it allowed them to reduce the amount of food wasted as a result of the sudden shutdown.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on so many aspects of food and beverage operations has been immense. Like NRG, many local restaurants have had to shift to primarily take-out service. Paying for disposable packaging, increased sanitation requirements, reduced customer capacity and winterizing outdoor dining have created increased operational costs for restaurants struggling to keep their doors open.
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One of the unfortunate by-products of these changes has been a significant increase in waste from food, disposable take-out items and personal protective equipment (PPE) which is creating a strain on the environment already threatened by pollution and climate change.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) initially advised restaurants to “use disposable food service items” and “avoid use of food and beverage utensils and containers brought in by customers.” This led restaurants to scramble to procure these disposable food service items, creating a lack in inventory and a rise in prices. Suddenly, cafes that encouraged customers to bring their own coffee cups or grocery stores that urged shoppers to bring bags were turning to single-use paper and plastics.
Many cities and jurisdictions, like Philadelphia and New York City, delayed enforcement of their ban on disposable plastic bags in response to COVID-19. Virginia managed to pass a bill (SB11) that Gov. Ralph Northam signed into law that authorized cities and counties to impose a 5 cent tax on disposable plastic bags beginning Jan. 1, 2021.
These large-scale issues have had very real implications for local restaurant owners who are struggling to stay afloat in a sea of regulations. NRG addressed the issue of increased disposable packaging on their website saying, “we’re making efforts to use biodegradable or second-use recycled packaging as much as possible. We also encourage participation in local recycling programs and composting efforts.”
For Fontaine Caffe & Creperie located at 119 S. Royal St. in Old Town, food waste was not much of an issue. As a small restaurant where everything is cooked to order and inventory is ordered every day, scaling down to adjust to COVID-19 changes was manageable. The biggest challenge for the restaurant was creating a to-go dining program.
“We really didn’t have a take-out program before and our typical take-out was whatever you didn’t finish, or maybe every once in a while, somebody would order a tuna sandwich to go. For the most part, people were not ordering our real menu off of a take-out or to-go perspective and so I would say we have seen a 100 percent increase in that, because we just weren’t geared for that,” Fontaine’s owner explained.
Dishwashing was an example of the difficulty for Fontaine to follow health regulations while trying to remain sustainable. The restaurant is billed for every dishwasher rack that is run. For sanitation reasons, the restaurant no longer refills drinking cups and glasses which means they replace a guests cup or glass every time they need a refill. What used to be 800-1,000 runs of the dishwasher a month has gone up to 4,000 even with the decrease in indoor diners. A COVID sanitation fee was added to help with the expenses.
Fontaine’s owner is worried what the winter will bring with colder temperatures and customers beginning to feel the financial pinch that COVID-19 has caused for many due to income loss and little help from the government. She wishes she had all the solutions to the sustainability challenges that COVID-19 has imposed on restaurants. “I don’t know how to. I’d love to see some sort of restaurant forum… it would be nice if there was a way that restaurant owners could share,” she said.
While customers have expressed frustration over things like seating limitations, she has not heard from customers who are worried about the increase in disposable packaging. “We might have someone who says, 'Oh, we don’t need the silverware, I’m going home, but nobody is saying 'Don’t put it in a bag or serve it differently'…we have not experienced that.”
Prior to COVID-19, environmental sustainability was important to Nicole Jones, owner of Stomping Ground, located at 2309 Mt. Vernon Ave. in Del Ray.
“Prior to COVID, we didn’t always use compostables, but we would use a lot of craft paper, which is like the next best thing. We tried to do compostables, but the kind of food we’re doing, which is eggs and cheese and baked goods, have a way of eating through that material.”
She pointed out that using these types of quality materials can cost twice as much as the alternatives, but when the restaurant's to-go business was 30 to 50 percent, depending on the day of the week, it was something they could easily factor in to restaurant costs.
Once COVID-19 began, Jones was competing with every other restaurant owner for take-out containers. “If you want to have some intentionality with your disposables, you can’t…now we are 100 percent to-go, so our consumption for our restaurant is higher and then consumption in the marketplace across the board is a lot higher. The good stuff became more expensive or it wasn’t available and then you’re just kind of forced to use these crappy Styrofoam containers,” Jones explained.
Some Stomping Ground customers noticed the change in take-out containers and asked her to stop, but Jones said she didn’t have much of a choice. In an effort to reduce waste, her staff routinely asks if customers need disposable silverware, which she says many decline. Even so, only 10 percent of her customers have directly asked the restaurant not to use single-use plastic bags or packaging for their orders.
Though Jones does not have much control over the large amount of disposable take-out containers and PPE they now go through, she said they have been able to maintain a zero-waste kitchen when it comes to food. They came up with creative specials and dinner options to use up any foods they had on hand. Early on, they also slashed menu items, cut back on deliveries and sold ingredients directly to customers. She has also tried recycling and composting, but lamented that the
City of Alexandria does not make it easy for restaurants.
Jones explained why COVID-19 has been so difficult for restaurant owners. “Restaurants operate and thrive on systems. Any change in that system breaks every other system…In the beginning, you saw that restaurant owners were kind of like the 'walking wounded,' because every single system that we had spent years perfecting got destroyed… it changed everything.”
As the pandemic lingers on, some environmental groups are fighting back, arguing that reusable food service items do not pose a greater risk than disposable ones, when handled properly. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration does not mention disposables at all on it’s Best Practices for Retail Food Stores, Restaurants, and Food Pick-Up/Delivery Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic web page. Instead, it emphasizes using proper sanitation and good hygiene. The CDC said that COVID-19 is not commonly spread through touching surfaces, but is instead most commonly transmitted through respiratory droplets.
According to the environmental organization Greenpeace, in June 2020, 125 health experts from around the world signed a statement advocating the safety of reusables during the COVID-19 pandemic, pointing out that it can be spread just as easily on disposables if appropriate sanitation measures are not followed. The non-profit UpStream has written extensively about the reusable vs. single-use product safety and offers suggestions for alternatives to single-use food service products like reusable product delivery services.
While cutting back on disposable items may sound good in theory, it is much harder to implement on the front lines, where the optics of feeling safe are often more important than reality. As an uncertain winter sets in, many restaurants are doing what is necessary to survive. Jones summed up the situation by saying, “On behalf of most restaurant owners that I know, we are truly doing the very best that we can.”
Reduce Waste While Supporting Local Restaurants
Reduce: The best solution for the waste problem is to reduce the creation of it in the first place. If you have the option, ask restaurants ahead of time not to put your take-out order in a plastic bag and pass on the extra sauce, napkins and silverware if you will be eating at home. Start composting food scraps by creating your own station in your backyard or through a city or county program, if available. On nights you are making dinner at home, try to buy whole foods like fruits and vegetables or bulk foods that are not packaged.
Reuse: If you have plastic bags from takeout or groceries, find a way to reuse them as dog waste bags or trash can liners instead of buying them. When you go out in public, wear washable face masks that can be used multiple times instead of disposable ones.
Recycle: When it comes to food containers that are recyclable, make sure all food residue is rinsed away before throwing it in the bin. Plastic bags and Styrofoam cannot be recycled and should be disposed of in a secure trash receptacle. Find out more about recycling at alexandriava.gov/Recycling or fairfaxcounty.gov/publicworks/ recycling-and-trash.
