“Go Green OC’s mission is to make Ocean City the first zero-waste resort town in the U.S.,” Go Green OC Founder Josh Chamberlain said. With the expansion of the non-profit’s composting campaign, that goal is even closer to becoming reality. Compost is a mixture of ingredients such as leaves and food waste used to fertilize and restore soil. “Composting can reduce up to 50% of waste in restaurants, so it’s just another way to do good to Mother Earth,” Chamberlain said.
“So that was kind of that light bulb moment of okay this is definitely worth doing. You think about half of your trash and waste you can repurpose into a valuable and renewable resource? Let’s go down this and let’s explore this,” The Hobbit Restaurant Owner Garvey Heiderman said. This initiative also brings an official recycling program to the resort town, as efforts were discontinued back in 2009.
The program began in 2018 with collecting food waste from just one restaurant, the Hobbit. Today, the non-profit has partnerships with 12 restaurants in the resort town, adding Fish Tails Bar & Grill to that lineup. “We’re in the fishing business and the restaurant business, so we try to do what’s best for the environment and keep everything sustainable for our livelihood,” Fish Tails Bar & Grill Owner Shawn Harman said. As they continue to expand their footprint in the community, including a new partnership with the Lower Eastern Shore Sierra Club chapter, the organization’s goal is to collect 500,000 pounds of food waste by the end of 2022.