For the Good of the Planet

At the forefront of changing practices for the good of the planet is T. Rowe Price. They embrace recycling, composting food and the use of compostable containers as part of their corporate environmental policy.

Compostable containers are used at all T. Rowe Price locations in Maryland and Colorado, where CulinArt provides dining services. Key to a successful implementation is educating customers that compostables are being served and must be separated into their designated bins in order to be composted.

“The client started with simple trash cans for composting,” explains Eric Smith, Senior Director of Dining Services for CulinArt, who created marketing and signage to encourage customer participation.

To take that to the next level, the company started using multi-section bins made from recycled milk containers. In addition, Smith worked with CulinArt’s Marketing Department to add illustrated pictograms to prevent items from being placed in the wrong bins. “It’s a matter of training and mentoring to do the right thing.”

By partnering with Veteran Composting seven years ago and adopting Waste Not the team accounts for what goes into the compostable stream and better controls food costs. “We collect our scraps and any possible product that is expired, which is measured by the quart and recorded,” says Smith. “We collect this through clear, five-gallon, marked food containers and then place it in large outdoor totes.”

Veteran Composting visits the site once a week to collect the used bins and replace them with clean ones. As the vendor’s name suggests, all the composting collection and processing is done at its facility by a team of armed forces veterans or their family members.

Next on the list is implementing compostables in office coffee services for the good of the planet.