Your Favorite Restaurant May Be Gravely Impacting Our Planet

?Going Green,? is everywhere we look in this country, and across the world. The effort to assist in slowing this earth’s rapidly changing climate and reducing the amount of emissions produced is of top priority for many organizations and private citizens in America.? One avenue of great impact,but not highly publicized, is the impact restaurants have on gas emissions, biodiversity, and climate change. Surprisingly, every time you sit down to eat at your favorite local restaurant, you are gravely impacting our earth.

A few startling facts about the restaurant industry’s impact on our earth:

  • A single restaurant throws away between 50,000 and 100,000 pounds of garbage a year, 95 percent of it being recyclable
  • The restaurant industry uses 5 times more energy than any other comparable industry
  • A single restaurant uses 300,000 or more gallons of water per year
  • A large portion of restaurants order food from a distributer instead of purchasing local, affecting our earth’s resources gravely

The restaurant industry’s impact can be seen as a snowball effect. Every product purchased goes through a production cycle, producing 60 percent of the food related gas emissions on this planet. Each single purchase can create a chain of ecologically devastating events spanning the entire globe. Beyond production, waste disposed of ending up in the local trash dumps breaks down and releases toxic gases into the atmosphere, ultimately adding to our greenhouse gas emissions. ?Researchers estimate that food waste is responsible for 135 million tons of greenhouse emissions every year.

Organizations like the Sustainable Restaurant Association and Green Restaurant Association are pushing for restaurants to take the steps to become ecologically responsible. These organizations offer programs to become both green certified and endorsed, which are steps that will improve our environment and the bottom line for the company involved.

The American people are always looking for newer and cleaner ways to sustain life on this planet without destroying the very thing we depend on for existence. As restaurants move forward into a more ecological mindset, the more our ecosystems and our local economies will begin to grow and prosper. Each little step will assist the planet in rejuvenation and longer lasting ability to supply its inhabitants with essential life sustaining products.

Edited/Published by: SB

I am a 30 something writer passionate about politics, the environment, human rights and pretty much everything that effects our everyday life. To stay on top of the topics I discuss, like and follow me at https://www.facebook.com/keeponwriting and https://facebook.com/progressivenomad .