October marks our month for recycling. Two years on and we have much to feel good about eliminating wastage to varying degrees. It began in little ways by buying fresh daily, planting seeds in the back yard, and has grown gradually over time. Our composting has led to the line of planters with herbs, pretty flowers, even olives to adorn and put to use at the restaurant. We also have been very successful in recycling our residual oils. There is nearly zero wastage in terms of packaging as the oil gets stocked into a recycled drum which further gets turned to bio fuel.
Our top physical feature at Naturally Chinese has proved to be our wine shelf, which was made from recycled offcuts, especially produced for the restaurant. It was designed and made by a good friend Tristan Tituex, founder of Empatika, who is passionate about reusable, renewable and recyclable materials. He has also authored a book called Furniture For The Future.
We will soon be working with Food Safe, an organisation in London that helps food establishments monitor their food waste and in doing so, practice safer and eco friendly methods of conservation. Our goal for Naturally Chinese is to try to achieve a zero waste policy and implement a much more greener lifestyle. Things are slowly starting to take shape in the direction I had envisaged for Naturally Chinese – healthy Chinese cuisine with an abundance of natural greens and keeping in step with modern lifestyle of the community. I’d love to hear more ways of eliminating waste and recycling. Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas.
