BOSSIER, La. (AP) - Local establishments are mixing business with a passion for preserving the environment and giving back to the community.
It begins with realizing there is a problem and resolving to find a solution.
Don O’Byrne, owner of Don Juanz Baja Beach Tacos, was unnerved by the lack of mandated environmental practices in the local restaurant industry. So he decided to enforce his own standards for recycling and proper waste disposal training at his restaurants in Shreveport-Bossier City.
“I know a lot of restaurateurs, including myself, who love to talk about how we source locally, source sustainably, that we manage fresh food and how we want the finest and freshest ingredients. But you don’t hear a lot of guys talking about, ’Hey, here’s what we’re trying to do to help the environment so that we can continue serving this clean, wholesome, fresh food,’” O’Byrne said. “If we don’t have a clean earth, we aren’t going to have any good, local or sustainable food.”
Meanwhile, local microbrewery Great Raft Brewing has forged a relationship with Bossier Parish’s Mahaffey Farms and other local farmers to remedy a unique problem for both parties. Instead of tossing used grains left from making a batch of beer, Great Raft donates them to feed their livestock.
“Local farmers save money on feed and it helps us quickly and safely dispose of the grain that would turn pretty nasty in a few days,” said Andrew Nations, president/owner of Great Raft Brewing in Shreveport. “It’s a great way for both of us to get the most out of our raw materials.”
The environmentally-friendly practices are examples of what can be done to make a positive economically and ecological impact on a community. And the recycling trailblazers have found unique ways to unify their personal passion and business tactics to make it worthwhile.
What they’re doing and why:
Recycling is an old habit O’Byrne instills in his staff at his two restaurants. It’s a habit learned at home from his wife, Amy, he said.
“It came down to just the bare facts of, ’Let’s do something good for our environment,’” O’Byrne said.
It’s a personal passion for him, but it became a business matter. O’Byrne, who opened his first Don Juanz ten years ago in Bossier City, realized early on that his restaurant produced a substantial amount of waste daily. O’Byrne was determined to decrease his ecological footprint, he said.
“After learning the average restaurant meal produces 1.5 pounds of waste and 95 percent of restaurant waste could be diverted from the landfill with proper systems in place, we felt a need to create a change in the local dining culture,” O’Byrne said.
Great Raft Brewing’s production warehouse and tap room opened more than three years ago in Shreveport. They now distribute to retail stores, restaurants and bars regionally.
Each batch of beer brewed uses approximately 1,500 pounds of high quality malted barley, Nations said. After it has run its course, the spent grain leftover from the malted barley can no longer used by the microbrewery, but it still has value.
“Once the color and sugar is removed in the brewing process, the grains are removed and no longer needed,” Nations said. “This ’spent grain’ still has nutritional value and can be recycled beyond the brewing process.”
There is no alcohol in the grains.
Since 2013, Great Raft has opted to donate the spent grains to a few local farmers to feed to their livestock instead of sending it to a landfill.
“Farmers pick up grain several times a week totaling in roughly 12,000 pounds of spent grain,” Nations said. “This year we will generate over 600,000 pounds of spent grain going directly to local farmers.”
How it makes a difference:
Evan McCommon of Mahaffey Farms makes three to four trips to Great Raft to pick up two to four tons of the spent grain per week. He then transports the large bins to his Princeton farm and distributes it to a portion of his cattle, pigs and laying hens.
Mahaffey Farms is a “regenerative” farm with a focus on “building soil and biodiversity to regenerate our land and produce nutrient dense, wholesome, foods,” McCommon said.
Although Mahaffey Farms’ cattle are grass-fed, it isn’t always enough for the livestock’s diet. Due to the change in genetics over the years, McCommon said some cows have problems gaining weight on a grass-only diet or with producing milk. The spent grain, which is rich in protein and fiber, acts as a supplement so the animals can recover and become healthy.
“Out of our 150 head of grass fed cattle we probably have about 20 to 30 that are getting the protein supplement from the grains for ’recovery,’” McCommon said. “At any given time during the summer, we give the grains at a rate of about 10 to 15 percent of the daily ration to our pigs and laying hens. It’s a nice filler and saves us a few percentage points in feed costs.”
It’s a well-worth the effort of transporting, as it saves the farming company about 3 percent off the bottom line, McCommon said, and makes the livestock healthier.
“It’s a really wonderful use of a waste product from another industry,” McCommon said. “The grains used from Great Raft are all non-GMO, so for me as an ecologically conscious farmer, I’m trying to pay attention to what goes into my animals and what ultimately comes out of my product.”
O’Byrne ends up paying more money than saving in order to recycle to the extent he desires.
Recycling isn’t mandated for restaurants, he said, but he chooses to pay extra to have recycling receptacles at his Bossier City restaurant, as well as his second location that opened in Shreveport earlier this year.
He pays an additional $54 a month, per location, to have a cardboard recycling bin behind his restaurant. A plastic recycling container costs on average $45-$55 per month to use, he said.
To properly recycle oil and grease, he pays about $45 per month to have bins to dump used oil. The oil is then processed and reused for oil-based products, such as machine oils and lubricants, cleaners and soap.
And a recycling company from Dallas picks up Styrofoam products with the price varying $50-$60, depending on amount collected and how many stops the company makes in the area, he said.
He doesn’t make any money on recycling, he said, but the costs of the bins of adding a team member to his staff to oversee recycling preparations are worth the costs.
“Most people choose not to just because it’s an extra cost just to say you’re recycling. But it’s something we believe in,” O’Byrne said.
Leading by example:
The decisions made by the visionaries have a ripple effect beginning with benefits to the company and going further to impact their communities and further. But it’s an effort O’Byrne wants more people to be a part of, including local and state government.
“There’s nothing set up yet as for the city as far as business entities go,” he said. “Unless there’s an outside corporation that’s already set up to recycle, smaller, privately-owned businesses probably aren’t recycling like they could.”
The City of Shreveport supplies blue recycling bins for residential homes, but not businesses, he said.
Besides the saving the environment, recycling can benefit multiple parties, O’Byrne said. A city mandating recycling could make money by working with recycling companies and renting out receptacles to the businesses, he said. Also, recycling practices could make the city more marketable to companies and agencies considering coming to the area.
“It’s a loophole that’s just overlooked. If I wasn’t in the taco business, I’d be in the recycling business because I believe there’s a big opportunity for it here,” he said. “It’s already in place in most major cities- and mandatory in some major cities, as well.”
But these O’Byrne and some other local business leaders aren’t waiting for change from outside parties, they are taking it upon themselves to make the change.
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Information from: The Times, https://www.shreveporttimes.com
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