Quinte Mall food court working towards zero waste

You may have noticed a distinct change at the Quinte Mall food court over the last few months.

The Belleville shopping mall is one of just a handful of malls across the country that has adopted a zero-waste food court initiative.

The program began last fall and according to Quinte Mall Property Manager Nick Allen has been a great success so far.

“So now instead of customers disposing their waste on their own, they bring the trays to the counter of the tray sorting station and our great food court maintenance team then sorts the products into the various different streams including organics, paper, recycling and waste.”

To encourage participation in the program, they’ve removed all waste containers from the food court.

Staff weigh and measure all the containers that they’ve filled every day and enter the information into a database so they can track their success.

“In just the five months we’ve already diverted over 84,000 pounds of food court waste from landfill which equates to about 38 tonnes.”

Zero waste is defined as reducing waste to landfill, incineration and environment by 90% or more.

Quinte Mall has achieved an approximately 88% diversion rate through the first five months of its zero-waste food court.

Allen says they continue to tweak the program and he expects the diversion number to climb as they improve sorting methods and tenants adopt more sustainable products.

Quinte Mall modelled its program on the zero-waste food court implemented at another Primaris REIT property, Devonshire Mall in Windsor in 2018.

A few other malls, including Lansdowne Place in Peterborough have adopted similar initiatives and Allen says he’s been fielding calls and giving tours to other outlets interested in setting up their own programs.

Response to the program has been very good.

“It’s been really positive from the community, the guests, the tenants. Everyone’s been great. They’ve really understood what we’ve been trying to accomplish here and everyone’s been extremely supportive of the program.”

He notes sustainability remains top of mind for Quinte Mall.

The mall features Tesla charging stations, a water bottle filling station and commitments to recycling, energy efficiency and environmental compliance.