Food waste is increasing at alarming rates and the food industry is the biggest contributor to this. Most restaurants and supermarkets dump perfectly good produce at dumpsters. Thankfully, most does not mean all, and more and more “Zero-Waste” restaurants are popping up- first in the US, now the UK follows.
World’s population is expected to reach nine billion by 2050, according to the UN. At this rate of increasing temperatures and changing climate, it is clear that we will not be able to produce enough food to feed everyone. Yet, so many people continue to be careless and not think of the consequences when they simply dispose of food at dumpsters.
Thankfully, there are some that think beyond their own little worlds, and although they can afford to dump waste, they simply do not do it. A few months ago we told you about the great zero-waste restaurant, Sandwich Me In, in Chicago, where careful planning is the key to brilliant use of all products, even these that normally would be dumped.
But looking across the ocean, a bit closer to my home, things are starting to happen too. First it was the Skipchen restaurant in Bristol, England, where the menu comprises of perfectly good food collected mainly from supermarket dumpsters. Now, it is time for the first for the UK zero-waste restaurant, which just recently opened its doors in the sunny town Brighton.
Welcome to Silo, a seemingly small place, which is a bakery, a coffee house and a restaurant, where wheat is ground in the house and used in the homemade bread, water is filtered through osmosis, and all organic waste is turned into compost. The produce is fresh, seasonal and local, some of it even grown in the house, while the furniture is made entirely out of recycled materials, and the toilet flushes with used water from the coffee machine.
The restaurant proudly announces that they produce zero waste, while the pure and raw design screams ‘sustainability’. Definitely a place to visit. The food is organic, mainly vegan and vegetarian, super tasty, super healthy, and even if you happen to leave a bit on your plate, there is a guarantee that it will not go to waste.
Image (c) Silo
