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Business & Tech

Waste Free

Fifth Group Restaurants have gone green

Two delicious neighborhood restaurants could each be throwing away around 14,000 to 18,000 pounds of waste every month.

Instead, around 7,000 to 9,000 pounds of organics are composted each month and that same amount of papers, plastics and glass is recycled and reused rather than sent to the landfill.

Fifth Group Restaurants are dedicated to producing virtually no waste at their five Metro Atlanta restaurants, which includes and in Virginia Highland.

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Everything down to the used oil at the restaurants is distributed back to our community in the most sustainable way.

The oil is locally converted and sold as bio-diesel fuel. They have eliminated all styrofoam and only use recyclable or compostable materials in the stores.

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The green initiatives at both restaurants helped push the businesses and shops around the restaurants to go green as well, and the recycling programs near El Taco and La Tavola have both been significantly strengthened

La Tavola is also part of the Virginia-Highland “Carbon Neutral Zone” on N. Highland Avenue and Virginia Avenue, which was one of the first retail communities to offset greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

Fifth Group Partner Steve Simon said financially, most of the environmentally conscious changes they have made have been cost-neutral for them. He also said that the effect on their PR has been very positive because people want to share their story and encourage others to support their efforts.

“We contribute less trash in a week than a typical household of four even though we feed two to three thousand people,” Simon said.

As soon as he became aware of what was possible for him, Fifth Group and restaurants around the country to do to invest in the environment, Fifth Group began the changes. They even have a rooftop garden at their Midtown restaurant, .

Mark Wilson, a manager at El Taco, said the green efforts are also important to restaurant-goers and staff.

“Everybody on staff has gotten on board and it’s been great,” Wilson said. “A lot of our guests are from the neighborhood and being it’s such a green part of town, they’re really excited about it.”

Want to learn more about what these two eateries are doing to help Mother Earth? Check out the eco-friendly blurb on their menus next time you stop into a Fifth Group restaurant.  

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