Moscone Going 100% Biodegradable

Zero-Sum Claim: Moscone Going 100% Biodegradable
...interestingly enough, George Moscone, for which the center is named, remains pickled in non-biodegradable formaldehyde in a non-biodegradable box in lovely downtown Colma...

by Jay Nisen

Talk about making waves in reducing environmental waste: the mayor's office has announced that Moscone Convention Center's food and beverage products have gone all biodegradable. When you consider high profile conferences like Macworld, JavaOne, Worldwide Developers Conference, Oracle OpenWorld 2007, and similar, tens of thousands of desk-bound workers, not exactly known for our restrained eating habits, going 100% biodegradable can make a real, quantifiable difference.

The Moscone has long been a leader in environmental friendliness—take, for instance, the solar energy system that was installed in March 2004—one of the largest such city-owned systems in the country. The mayor's office claims that at September's VM World event, the Moscone Center diverted about 40,000 box lunch containers from landfill. It anticipates diverting 60,000 box lunch containers at Oracle OpenWorld in November. Why not green wash the cafeteria ladies?


The deets, in brief, on what's being done by SMG, the city's partner in running the convention center:


1) Purchasing focuses on local products; bakery vendors must recycle empty boxes; organic produce and hormone-free dairy and meats used whenever possible.
2) Only compostable (cornstarch) containers at Moscone’s food service locations/for major catering events.
3) A large portion Moscone’s unused food donated to community services; kitchen-generated waste separated for composting/recycling as appropriate.
4) Dishwashing done with Ecolab’s "Geosystem" dishwashing detergents.