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SALT LAKE CITY -- More Salt Lake restaurants may take steps to become greener. Health inspectors are encouraging it.
The Salt Lake Valley health department has started to work with restaurants on its Sustainable Restaurant Initiative. Health inspector Andrea Gamble says they are starting with simple steps to be greener, like telling restaurants not to serve water to guests before they have ordered drinks.
"A lot of times somebody will order a different beverage, and they won't even drink the water that was provided and it's wasted," Gamble said.
According to Gamble, each glass of water served uses five gallons of water.
"You dump that down the drain, then it goes through the dish machine. You have to use soap, sanitizer, that water goes to the sanitary sewer, it has to be cleaned" she said.
Gamble says a restaurant in California stopped serving water unless patrons asked for it and they found they had saved 125 gallons of water a day, or 45,625 gallons a year.
She mentions that another way to help the environment and save money is by cleaning the fridge coils. Gamble says health inspectors have started to point this out. They even saved a restaurant from shutting down because its fridge was not keeping food at a safe temperature. Cleaning the coils fixed the problem.
The Health Department would love to move toward bigger steps, like composting, in the future, Gamble said. In the new year, they hope to inform restaurant owners about the goal, and expect to hand packets with information on becoming greener. Participating restaurants would get a sticker showing customers they are green.
Gamble says they plan on having a new website or section of their website with the Sustainable Restaurant information. For now, people who want more information on food safety can go to slvhealth.org.
Email:mrichards@ksl.com
