Welcome!

Hello and welcome to Dining in the Dark!

We are extremely excited to start this awareness initiative about the ways in which restaurants can improve their ecological footprint.  Every week, we will be bringing you information about our progress, ways that you can help out, and restaurant initiatives.

            So, to get started, we would like to give you all a bit of facts about the restaurant environment so that you all can understand the gravity of the situation. 

Here are a few statistics:

An average of 50, 000 lbs of trash are produced by ONE restaurant every year, with 20% of all food produced being wasted.

The average fresh food item travels 1,500 miles before being consumed.  This is equal to 14 tons of carbon emissions, which is equal to 71 trees!
The U.S. population tosses out enough paper bags, plastic cups, forks, and spoons each year to circle the equator 300 times! (Cleanair org)
 A single restaurant meal uses around 6-29 gallons of water/meal, which relates to 5,800 gallons of water a day.

Now, we understand that many of us have the tendency to not consider all these negative ecological impacts that we cause by eating out.  But as the environmental situation that we face becomes a pressing matter, we, as consumers, must begin to demand green restaurants.  Through demanding that restaurants cut back on their enormous carbon footprint, we can really make a difference! 

So, please think about this next time you are eating out!  You can do this several ways:

a)    When getting take out, ask the restaurant to exclude plastic utensils and paper napkins with your order in favour of using your own metal utensils
      at home.

b)   Recycle your waste when possible!  If the restaurant does not have a recycling bin, tell them that they should provide one.  Through recycling, restaurants can cut back on their waste by 95%

c)    Ask for locally grown food!  Through cutting back on transportation and production costs of mass produced crops, you are really helping to
      decrease carbon emissions.  Plus locally grown food just tastes better!

d)   Tell the restaurant about our initiative!!  Any restaurant can contact us at dininginthedark.org@gmail.com and we can help them get on their way to a greener future!

Thank you all for reading and expect to hear from us soon! 

Till then, stay bright!

-Dining in the Dark