Ivar’s Restaurants and Cedar Grove® team up to give diners a free bag of compost

Free bag of compost to Ivar's customers
on Tuesday August 16

Ivar’s Restaurants and Cedar Grove are teaming up to provide free bags of compost to all lunchtime customers at Ivar’s Seafood Bar on Aurora Avenue (13448 Aurora Ave N, Seattle, WA 98133) on August 16 from 11am – 2pm.

Seattle Tilth educator and garden hotline program manager Laura Matter will also be on site to provide free gardening advice, including tips on how to use compost.

The restaurants’ robust food scrap recycling program is part of its overall sustainability program, wherein valuable food scraps are diverted away from the landfill to be transformed into nutrient-rich compost at Cedar Grove facilities.

“As one of the first restaurants in Seattle to compost food waste more than a decade ago, Ivar's has been a leader in reusable packaging, working with the city and county on solutions to compost all packaging and working with suppliers and industry leaders like Cedar Grove to institute best practices,” said Bob Donegan, president of Ivar’s. 

Since 2008, Ivar’s commitment to providing its customers with compostable food service ware and supporting a robust composting program in its restaurants resulted in a diversion of nearly 5,000 tons of food scraps and food packaging materials from the landfill.

In addition, Ivar’s has diverted tons of compostable food waste and materials from landfills through its operations in regional stadium concessions and the Boeing Classic.

Because food scraps in a landfill create methane, one of the most harmful, ozone-layer depleting gases, recycling food scraps is an important first step for restaurants and households to take to positively impact the environment.

In turn, Ivar’s purchases bulk compost for landscaping of its 23 quick-serve Seafood Bars and three full-service restaurants. In essence, re-using much of what they put in.

“Ivar’s commitment to the environment and the Seattle community is real and, through its composting program, it chose to lead the pack as an early adopter of best environmental practices in the restaurant industry,” said Karen Dawson, director of marketing and community relations, Cedar Grove.