Downtown Atlanta businesses launch Zero Waste Zone

Downtown Atlanta hotels and restaurants are going green.

The Georgia World Congress Center (GWCC) and several downtown convention hotels and restaurants have partnered with the federal government and environmental groups to form the Southeast’s first Zero Waste Zone to reduce the flow of garbage into landfills.

The initiative was launched Tuesday during the 1,700-member Meeting Planners International convention.

GWCC -- the nation’s fourth-largest convention center -- Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and the Hyatt Regency Atlanta are among the downtown institutions that have pledged to up their recycling efforts, including sending used grease to local biofuel producers. Other downtown restaurants and hotels have promised to donate food to the Atlanta Community Food Bank or to send residuals to composting centers.

Levy Restaurants, the food contractor at the GWCC, has partnered with Washington, D.C.-based EnviRelations, LLC to compost food wastes, which will save 34 tons of organic materials each month from entering area landfills, according to a news release.

“We are amazed at the enthusiasm shown in support of the Zero Waste Zone,” Laura Turner Seydel, honorary chairwoman of the Zero Waste Zone-Downtown Atlanta, said in prepared remarks. “The composting program is incredibly innovative since there was not a permitted composting facility in Georgia until four months ago.”

According to the news release, Georgians send more than 17 million tons of garbage to landfills each year. The amount per person is double the national average.

The Green Foodservice Alliance and Atlanta Recycles started the initiative. The groups plan to expand the initiative throughout the downtown convention district, and ultimately to other areas of the city, such as Buckhead and Midtown.

“The companies participating in Atlanta’s downtown Zero Waste Zone, the first in the Southeast and one of just a handful across the nation, will recover materials that would ordinarily be sent to a landfill and instead put them to good use,” said Stan Meiburg, EPA Region 4 Acting Regional Administrator. “Eliminating waste is important and EPA applauds the Green Foodservice Alliance, the Georgia Restaurant Association and Atlanta Recycles for working with downtown businesses to rethink their foodservice operations with reuse and recycling in mind.