In This Section:
More Cities Now In FOG
Illinois Snuffs Out Butts In January
San Francisco Fleet To Run On Bio-Fuel
Anaheim Utilities Offers Rebate On Thermal Storage Units
U.K. Companies Commit To Environmental 'Nutrition' Label
This issue's Economic Report Sponsor: Manitowoc Foodservice Group
Industry Report Sponsor: FHA2008
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More Cities Now In FOG
Houston's in the thick of it. So is Fairfield, Conn. And Lakeport, Calif., is considering jumping into the soup in January. In advance of federal standards for storm sewer overflow prevention, more cities are enacting FOG (fats, oils, grease) ordinances to help deal with problems caused by those materials in municipal water systems.
Houston enacted its new FOG ordinance back in May. The new rules require all restaurants to pay a $50 fee for a grease trap permit and have grease traps cleaned quarterly. The annual fee was due in July, with the first cleaning documentation starting in August. November marked the city's first semiannual proof-of-cleaning documentation.
The water department in Fairfield, too, set up a permitting process earlier this year, giving restaurants the option of installing a 1,000-gal. underground grease trap or an automatic grease removal system under a sink that periodically can be emptied into a 55-gal. drum. The permit fee is $150, and stores not in compliance by September began incurring penalties of $25 per day. All 170 of the town's foodservice operations are in compliance, according to sewer department supervisor Leo Mackewich.
In California, the Lakeport city council will consider a new FOG ordinance there in January. The proposal calls for all restaurants to install grease traps and even require homeowners to have lateral pipes tested for blockages.
For more details on the draft ordinance, go to www.cityoflakeport.com and click on "Draft Sewer Ordinance" on the left.
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Illinois Snuffs Out Butts In January
You might recall reading earlier this year that Illinois had decided to snuff out smoking. Well, here's the reminder that the state goes smoke-free starting Jan.1.
The Illinois Department of Public Health is still writing up the rules, but the basics are that no smoking is allowed in any public building or within 15 ft. of building entrances, including restaurants and bars. Building owners and/or tenants are responsible for posting no-smoking signs and making sure no one lights up. Fines for violating the rules will range from $100 to $250 for those who smoke, and from $250 to $1,000 for those who permit smoking on their premises.
Smoking is allowed in retail tobacco stores open prior to Jan. 1, private rooms in nursing homes or long-term care facilities, 25% of the rooms in hotels and motels, and outdoor patios provided the smoking area is 15 ft. away from any entrance.
The health department plans a website that explains what businesses have to do to comply. In the meantime, the proposed rules are posted on the site at www.idph.state.il.us.
San Francisco Fleet To Run On Bio-Fuel
San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission is greasing the skids, as it were, on the way to fueling its entire diesel fleet with a bio-fuel blend made from restaurants' leftover fats and oils.
In early October, the SFPUC expanded a three-year contract with BioSolar Group, Richmond, Calif., with $550,000 in additional funding.
The city began collecting waste grease from 40 city restaurants and turning it over to BioSolar for refining and blending with diesel fuel to power city vehicles. Initially, the city expects to refine about 50,000 gals. of waste grease a month. Eventually, SFPUC expects to operate its own refinery and process more than 1 million gals. a month from the city's 2,600 restaurants. The city says it hopes to fuel its entire fleet of diesel vehicles with a blend of 20% bio-fuel and 80% diesel. In anticipation, the city will convert its fleet to run on the bio-fuel blend by the end of the year.
Anaheim Utilities Offers Rebate On Thermal Storage Units
Thermal storage is a hot topic these days that you can turn into cool savings.
Participants at the National Restaurant Association's Multi-Unit Architects, Engineers & Construction Officers executive study group meeting in October learned how waste heat recovery can save energy costs. Now some utilities are offering additional savings on another kind of thermal storage.
Anaheim Utilities in Southern California is now offering up to $21,000 on the purchase of each refrigerant-based thermal storage unit you install. Refrigerant-based thermal storage units use your HVAC compressor to produce and store ice when it's not cooling your restaurant. The stored ice cools the refrigerant in your HVAC system when the air conditioning is running, helping it operate more efficiently and saving energy. The compressor makes ice mostly at night, when electric rates are lower.
Energy use during peak demand can be reduced by up to 97% with thermal storage, according to studies, and most users' overall energy use drops by about 5%.
For more information on the Anaheim Utilities rebate program, go to www.anaheim.net/utilities/adv_svc_prog/TES/TESIncentive.pdf.
U.K. Companies Commit To Environmental 'Nutrition' Label
U.K. consumers can find out way more from nutrition labels than just how much fat, sugar and calories they're putting in their bodies. Some labels now tell them how much carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases the product puts into the environment.
The Carbon Trust, a private company set up by the U.K. government to help businesses reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, worked with Walkers Snack Foods Ltd. and two other companies to develop a "carbon footprint" label. In March, Walkers began labeling its cheese and onion "crisps" with the number of grams of greenhouse gases emitted in the production of the bag of potato chips. The company has since rolled out the label on other flavors.
The Carbon Trust is working with the British Standards Institute and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, one of its funding partners, to standardize the methodology to compute a product's carbon footprint. A 33.5g bag of Walkers crisps produces 75g of greenhouse gases taking into account farming, manufacturing, packaging, distribution and disposal. If the company doesn't reduce its carbon footprint within two years, the label comes off.
Now, nine other companies have signed up as partners to use the Carbon Trust label, including Coca-Cola, Cadbury-Schweppes, Kimberley-Clark, Scottish & Newcastle and Muller Dairy. Each company will use the label on one or two products at first, adding more later. As companies put labels on more products, consumers will be able to compare the carbon footprint of similar products. To find out more, go to www.carbon-label.co.uk.
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