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Funnel cakes, hot dogs, and popcorn might not help save the planet, but serving them on a biodegradable plate and composting the leftovers can have a huge impact on the environment. As attractions look for opportunities to lower their carbon footprints, it’s often the food and beverage departments that are leading the charge.
At parks around the globe, concessions are switching to biodegradable and compostable foodware and utensils, introducing paper products made from recycled materials, composting food waste, recycling cooking grease, and coming up with other creative solutions to make their concessions more eco-friendly.
“We’re a business and we generate profits but we care about the environment, too, and our programs send the message that we want to do the right thing,” explains Todd Derr, attractions and grounds manager at Legoland California. “Food and beverage operations are the number-one contributor to waste in the park so it made sense to focus on what we could do to make changes in that area.”
Practice the Three R’s
 Legoland established a Green Wave Committee to tackle green initiatives in the park. The committee, which was established in 2007 and includes a representative from each department, is focused on integrating the three R’s—reduce, reuse, and recycle— into park operations. Under the direction of the committee, Legoland installed recycle bins throughout the park and implemented a cardboard recycling program that diverted 140 tons of cardboard from the landfill in 2009 alone.
The committee has also been active in encouraging reuse. Food service staff deposit used coffee grounds from restaurants and concession stands into metal bins, which the landscaping department collects and uses as compost in the park’s gardens.
“It’s such a simple thing to do and has such a huge impact,” notes Derr, adding that 4.5 tons of coffee grounds were used as soil amendment in 2009. “You never know how people are going to react to new programs but in this case, we had immediate buy-in.”
Product Predicaments
Even when the staff is enthusiastic about making green changes in the food and beverage departments, there are times when environmental initiatives don’t turn out as planned.
In an attempt to reduce waste, Sesame Place in Langhorne, Pennsylvania, introduced plates, bowls, and utensils made from corn-based products in 2008. The compostable foodware wasn’t in the park for long when food and beverage staff noticed that the utensils were breaking. It increased costs because guests were taking extra utensils to replace the ones that broke, says Rob Genco, vice president of revenue for Sesame Place, “which ended up creating more waste.” So Sesame Place discontinued the use of compostable foodware in 2010.
“There was a lot of trial and error to find the right products,” acknowledges Amber Christopher, director of guest services at the Denver Zoo in Colorado. “The first [compostable] utensils we tried melted in hot food. We went through a couple of different vendors before we found products that worked.”
Denver Zoo began using compostable foodware throughout the park in 2007 as part of its mission to become the greenest zoo in the United States. Legoland also uses compostable foodware in the park. Both have found products that are durable.
Devon’s Crealy Great Adventure Park in the United Kingdom traded its plastic plates and bowls for products made of cornstarch and introduced wooden utensils in an effort to achieve its goal of being a carbon-neutral park before the end of 2010. The park is also working with suppliers to create a biodegradable burger box to use at concession stands.
When it comes to making these changes, operators acknowledge it can be more expensive but agree that it’s a worthwhile investment.
“Our focus was on finding the right vendor and the right product. Cost was never a consideration,” explains Christopher. “We felt it was something we needed to be doing and our visitors expect us to be [undertaking green initiatives].”
Enhanced Efforts
It’s not just guest expectations that have inspired concessions to expand their environmental initiatives. Though, as noted above, sometimes green initiatives can be an expense increase, operators are recognizing significant cost benefits, too.
Legoland launched a small composting program in June at one of its restaurants, with plans to expand if the pilot scenario proved beneficial. In six months, staff composted 1,000 pounds of pre-consumer food waste. In 2011, the composting program will be rolled out across the park, which Derr estimates will lead to more than 27,000 pounds of food waste being diverted from the waste stream on an annual basis.
 “The weight of wet food scraps makes disposal fees expensive. Food waste is a huge contributor to our costs in terms of waste management fees,” Derr explains. In other words, the less food waste Legoland sends to the landfill, the less the park spends on disposal fees. Turning the food waste into compost also allows the park to save on landscape fertilizer and soil amendments. It’s a win-win. “We use the funds [we save on disposal fees] to enhance existing programs and launch new initiatives,” says Derr.
One of the newest initiatives at Legoland involves storing used cooking oil with the intention of converting it to biodiesel in 2011. The biodiesel will be used to run landscaping equipment and, in the future, park vehicles that have been converted to run on alternative fuels.
Crealy is doing the same thing: “All of our waste food oil is recycled,” explains hospitality manager Liam Armstrong. “On average 120 liters (31.7 gallons) of oil is collected per week by a local company, who then turns it into biofuel to power the on-site company vehicles.”
In 2009 Six Flags announced a pilot program in four of its parks to recycle vegetable oil from on-site kitchens to use as fuel in the on-site trains and vehicles.
Creative Solutions
 When Sesame Place decided to focus on reducing waste, disposable drinking cups were at the forefront of the discussion. Operators knew coming up with a greener alternative could help divert millions of cups from the landfill. The solution: reusable souvenir cups.
In 2005, the park encouraged guests to purchase a plastic cup for $5.99 and use it throughout the season, offering refills for just 99 cents. The program has been a huge success. “The souvenir cups have inspired sales and helped with the reduction of disposable cups,” explains Genco.
Looking Toward the Future
While some parks are just beginning to explore the possibilities for making their food service departments more ecofriendly, others are actively exploring ways to take their environmental efforts to the next level.
At the Denver Zoo, a biomass gasification system has been in development since 2007. According to George Pond, vice president of planning and capital projects, gasification will process trash, including food waste and animal dung, and convert it into energy that will be used for heat and electricity in zoo buildings. When the biomass gasification system becomes fully operational in 2013, Pond estimates that it will reduce landfill contributions by 1.5 million pounds per year.
It’s innovations like these that will shape how parks make green changes to their food and beverage departments in the future.
Jodi Helmer is the author of “The Green Year: 365 Small Things You Can Do to Make a Big Difference” and a frequent contributor to FUNWORLD.
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