Composting reaches 100
Designed over four years, the new 100 Maneiras has not only emerged as a new restaurant but also as an opportunity to create, from scratch, a space that would realize many of the values that the group has been discovering, developing and embracing in its 10 years of existence. Among them, sustainability, today an unavoidable concern that we wanted to take as far as possible. This is the reason behind the purchase of an Oklin GG-30S composting machine – a closed-loop composter, which allows to process up to 30 tons of organic waste per year, simply, without producing smells and allowing a reduction of 80 to 90% of generated garbage.
It was in Helsinki, at Nolla restaurant, where Ljubomir Stanisic was invited to cook a dinner of the series “Cooking Without Waste,” that the chef had his first meeting with this composter. Fascinated, he didn’t give up until he could bring his own model to Lisbon.
The composter, which is located in the warehouse and production kitchen space of the 100 Maneiras’ group, receives the organic matter that would be thrown away – such as vegetable and fruit scraps, meat and fish, stock leftovers, egg shells, flowers, leaves, hay, etc. – and in just 24 hours it can turn it into nutrient-rich compost for later use in agriculture. In operation since July 2019, the 100 Maneiras composter receives on average about 300kg of organic waste per week, resulting in close to 80kg of odorless compost ready for use. The goal is to distribute this 100% natural compound not only to farmers but also to the general public interested in producing their own plants and food at home, with the intention of supporting a green revolution in the heart of Lisbon.
The measure not only makes it possible to create a new product from “waste” but also reduces the impact that same waste would have on the environment by releasing greenhouse gases, like methane, as it decomposes. A novelty that, together with another set of measures, such as the implementation of energy-efficient LEDs in the new restaurant, the use of ecological products, or the reduction of plastics in the 100 Maneiras restaurants, among others, aims to reduce the group’s ecological footprint and ensure that the word “sustainability” is not limited to a concept but that it extends to a way of being and living, every day.
