Kansas City Food Blog

​If you don't clean your plate at Cafe Europa, you shouldn't feel guilty. The Crestwood restaurant has partnered with environmental consultant Earthscraps LLC to implement a composting and recycling program.   

"This is about getting into restaurants and addressing the issue of waste. Cafe Europa is an experiment. I'm hoping to take all my experience in the restaurant industry and passion for trash, and work to create a sustainable environment," says Jerame Gray, President of the Kansas City-based Earthscraps.

Gray launched his business in June after graduating from the University of Missouri-Kansas City with a Bachelor's degree in Urban Planning the previous December. If his name sounds familiar, he was a fixture behind the bar at Le Fou Frog for five years before his current bartending gig at the Blue Grotto.

But his entrepreneurial side pushed him to design a consulting firm to help businesses divert waste from landfills. And he found a restaurant willing to listen in Cafe Europa. Two months ago, the cafe retrofitted its kitchen with bins for composting material, glass and trash.  

"It's disturbing how much waste there is in a restaurant that can be recycled. The cost of the program is basically a wash because we are repurposing so much of our waste. We don't have things like cardboard filling up our dumpsters, eliminating the need for frequent pick-ups," says Cafe Europa manager Brady Gallagher.

The restaurant estimates that 85 percent of its kitchen waste is now being recycled. Food scraps are picked up by Missouri Organic -- where Gray works as a consultant -- and transported to a facility where they are turned into compost, soil and mulch that is then sold back to the community. Glass bottles and containers will go to Ripple Glass for recycling.

"It's been great for morale. All the employees are really excited about doing their part to make the restaurant eco-friendly. We're all proud of what we are accomplishing to make Cafe Europa and our community as green as possible," says Gallagher.

Adds Gray: "Restaurants are such a high-paced environment. It's very easy to take everything and throw it to the curb. We just have to slow down and be conscious of what we're throwing away."

Image courtesy of Thad Bell.