“We’re trying to make zero-waste cool by bringing it to the fine dining level,” explains Carlos Henriques, who runs new Helsinki-based restaurant Nolla alongside Luka Balac and Albert Franch Sunyer. In New York City by invitation of the Finnish Cultural Institute, they are sharing how they’ve managed to eliminate most of their restaurant waste in a series of panels, talks, and tastings for the NYCxDESIGN festival. While adopting such strict standards may seem impossible, the three say that many of their suppliers were able to switch over to reusable packaging relatively easily—it just took a little insistence. “When we got something that wasn’t in reusable packaging, we just sent it back. People respect you even more when you do that,” says Henriques. “And once people start to understand what we’re trying to do, they get excited by it.” While they’ve been able to source many local ingredients that live up to their standards by staying diligent, some basic ones—like pepper—are still off limits because they can’t track down the right source. In the three months that the restaurant has been open, it’s been packed. The founders are hopeful that their early success could speak to a new wave of ultra-waste-conscious restaurants around the world. “I think zero-waste is going to become a necessity in dining. It’s only a matter of time,” says Henriques. “When people see that there is a restaurant that makes more money doing this, why wouldn’t they try it too? I think other restaurants are already starting to make changes. It’s happening fast.” We’ll toast our food-waste crostinis to that. Restaurants aren’t the only places going zero-waste. Check out this grocery store and brewery concept. Emma received her B.A. in Environmental Science & Policy with a specialty in environmental communications from Duke University. In addition to penning over 1,000 mbg articles on topics from the water crisis in California to the rise of urban beekeeping, her work has appeared on Grist, Bloomberg News, Bustle, and Forbes. She’s spoken about the intersection of self-care and sustainability on podcasts and live events alongside environmental thought leaders like Marci Zaroff, Gay Browne, and Summer Rayne Oakes.
