Coming full circle

Xiao Zhu, the environment manager of Gung Ho pizza in Beijing, says that the circle of recycling still has many gaps that needs to be filled.

Although she has managed to train all her colleagues to sort out garbage into five categories, she still finds it hard to completely recycle the weekly kitchen waste of about 300 to 400 kilograms from Gung Ho's four branches.

"I've been to some of those garbage disposal plants where they just mix everything together. I think our carefully classified waste deserves a better ending."

Xiao had thought of selling the food waste to those who come to collect swill, which is what most restaurants do.

But she is concerned about the integrity and credibility of the swill collectors. "I don't know if they process the leftovers properly before they feed them to the pigs."

There are several food waste recycling companies in Beijing but they only sign contracts with large restaurants that produce tons of waste each week.

In the end, Xiao decided to give it away to one of her restaurant's food suppliers. Sai Yin owns a farm in Beijing and comes into town three times a week to deliver food and take the waste back.

But because there is not enough space in her car, she can only take about half the kitchen scraps back. She accepted Xiao's offer because the leftovers are "mostly dry uncooked vegetables that are good to make compost with".

Without clear guidelines, both restaurants and individuals with environmental awareness are facing the same dilemma: go with the flow or keep trying.

Even those who root for sustainability cannot help but wonder if their efforts will actually pay off, considering the lack of a well-established recycling system.

"We can control what we do in our kitchen but after our delivery, we can't control how the food waste is dealt with," Xiao says. "But at least we are doing our bit."