1369 Coffee House

1369 has been a long-time customer, and a leader in comprehensive food waste diversion in Cambridge. They’ve been separating their coffee grounds and food waste with us, and diverting all single stream recyclables AWAY from the landfill. Starting in February, they will be a full-service partner, and we’re excited to help them manage all materials.

Accomplishments with Save That Stuff:

 In 2014, 1369 diverted over 25 TONS of food waste and coffee grounds away from the landfill. That’s over 50,000 lbs. They set a precedent for Zero Waste coffee shops in Cambridge.

THEIR STORY

In January of 1993, the 1369 Coffee House opened at 1369 Cambridge Street, in Cambridges Inman Square. The site was the former home of the 1369 Jazz Club, a well known local bar and music venue. In June 1994 we opened a second store in nearby Central Square.

From the beginning, we envisioned 1369 as more than just a place to get coffee. We offer the very best coffees and teas available. We strive to create a comfortable, inviting atmosphere and to be an integral part of the community. Many friendships, including several marriages, have developed at 1369. Several books and many theses have been written at our tables. We take pride in being a good neighbor and local gathering place. We are dedicated to maintaining this feeling.

We have been fortunate to be the recipient of many awards and accolades. We continue to pursue our goals in an effort to achieve excellence in all we do. We intend to survive the onslaught of chains and to endure long into the future. We will continue our commitment to our neighborhood and community.

Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage

Accomplishments with Save That Stuff:

We (Save That Stuff) started managing Mr. Bartley’s trash and recycling at the beginning of 2015. In the first month, they have already eliminated 2 trash pickups a week, and increased their cardboard recycling, saving them money and supporting their business’ push towards Zero Waste and more diversion. They have been great to work with, and the burgers aren’t bad either!

THEIR STORY

“In 1960, Joe and Joan Bartley took over the Harvard Spa, a small convenience store facing Harvard Yard. The plan was simple: perfect the hamburger, the quintessential American sandwich. For years, a small grill accompanied greeting cards and paper goods. As word traveled, the menu took off, and Mr. and Mrs. Bartley’s Burger Cottage became the Harvard Square institution of today.

A perennial recipient of Best of Boston€ awards from The Boston Globe, The Improper Bostonian, and Boston Magazine, the food has been praised by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Esquire, and The Food Network. The laundry list of celebrity customers and fans includes Johnny Cash, Jaqueline Onasis, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Bill Belichick, Al Pacino, Adam Sandler, Tom Werner, and Katie Couric.

Three generations of the Bartley family have been serving perfect hamburgers for over 48 years. Customers line up down the block each day at lunch for a coveted seat, devouring our homemade burgers, onion rings, sweet potato fries, frappes, and lime rickeys. We serve the freshest beef imaginable and cook it perfectly to order. No one can compete with us in volume of hamburger prepared, so were able to be incredibly demanding of our suppliers. Our perfect onion rings are battered and fried to order.

Bartley’s has a fast-paced, wacky atmosphere. Our dining room looks like a dorm room, filled with posters, bumper stickers, and funny signs. In the summer months, a small outdoor cafe gives diners the chance to people-watch in the sun. Future husbands and wives have met across our signature central table for single diners.

In a time when burger chains frantically try to expand across the country and world with frozen beef and uniform spaces, Bartley’s has a simple aim: one perfect restaurant. After 50 years of honing their menu and ingredients, The Bartley Family has the ability and experience to consistently offer quality the chains simply cannot. Bartley’s didn’t invent the hamburger. We just perfected it.” See More.

Building BGA community with recycled art and solar-powered lanterns

Boston Green Academy celebrated Summer Reading on September 5th with an event called “Making Our Mark @ BGA.” During the summer, BGA students and staff read about people from six countries who have created electricity in innovative ways using local, recycled materials to harness solar and wind energy.

Our sixth, ninth, and tenth graders also used local, recycled materials — generously donated by Extras for Creative Reuse in Lynn and Save That Stuff in Charlestown — to create a BGA sign for the front foyer of the Taft Building — our new home. Thanks to expert guidance from VSA teaching artists, we have a beautiful entryway!

Meanwhile, the eleventh and twelfth graders created solar-powered lanterns with our physics and engineering teacher, Erica Wilson, and BGA Board member Chris Stokes.

Here are some photos from the day. Thanks to everyone who helped out!

Lucas Hall, Library Teacher, BGA

I was elbow-deep in tomato sauce when I realized that some people really don’t know how to recycle. At my feet I found banana peels and exploded bottles of vinaigrette dressing and fiberglass insulation. The mess before me opened my eyes as well as my nose to the fact we need better waste management systems  and public education.

Together with my First Year Student Outreach Program colleagues from Boston University, I have worked today at Save That Stuff, Inc. to help out at the plant and learn about different recycling systems. In a study to find out if machinery to sort single-stream recycling on site is worth the cost, we sorted through two dump-loads of this material. The numbers just aren’t adding up. Obviously non-recyclable items (ahem, food waste) were mixed in with the various papers, plastics, and scrap metals that we were looking to extract. However with a little public effort, this problem can be eliminated.

Besides working to better recycling on site, Save That Stuff, Inc. is taking on a whole new concept of reuse and conservation. Oyster shells are the new wave; by collecting the discarded shells from local Bostonian restaurants, workers at Save That Stuff are able to cure them over a one-year process that allows the shells to be reintroduced into the ocean, increasing the species reproduction rate. These shells weigh forty pounds per five-gallon bucket; many of said buckets were spray-painted by our group throughout the day. Rather than sitting in a landfill, the shells are now used to better the environment and make for a more sustainable food source.

Working on site has been impactful in that we all now understand the work that goes into the recycling process and the importance of public education. Plainly, if people give us garbage, they will get garbage back. Waste material must be separated properly and responsibly to be of use. I know that I for one will be more careful about what goes into my recycling bin …..will you?

By Shannon Linder, Boston University 2018

From Cambridge to California: Developing collection infrastructure for compostable’s. 

The infrastructure for source-separated food waste collection and diversion in major cities is growing, and the Boston area is quickly catching up. Little do most people know, Boston and surrounding cities have been developing better infrastructure for food waste recycling, nutrient capture, and urban agriculture since the early 2000’s, along side the city’s waste diversion and recycling efforts.

Save That Stuff was one of the first organic waste haulers in the state of Massachusetts, and has remained on the forefront of best practices in organics waste collection. In 2006, STS developed an organics collection route in partnership with the City of Cambridge, to help public schools responsibly divert their food scraps.  The City had concrete goals of reducing solid waste and greenhouse gas emissions. The City has since developed a range of programs to divert food scraps from the trash bin.

The City of Cambridge runs a food scrap drop off program for residents. In 2013 the City of Cambridge and Boston piloted a successful drop off program at summer farmer’s markets. And in April 2014, Cambridge kicked off a residential curbside collection pilot with 500-800 households, and to date captures ~85% of food scraps from the trash from participating households.

In October, 2014, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) will implement the Commercial Organics Waste Ban. This law will require large generators of food and biodegradable discards to divert the material alternatives other than landfill and incineration.

These are exciting times. Much is happening in the Greater Boston Area to develop robust infrastructure for collecting and responsibly managing compostables. Processing of food scraps ranges from high-value products for local agricultural to energy production from anaerobic digestion.

Join us for a FREE Webinar to hear more on organics diversion practices from Cupertino, California to Cambridge, Massachusetts!

Thursday, July 24, 2014 at 1:00pm – 2:30pm EDT

More info HERE

Register today!

Speakers include:

Randi Mail, Recycling Director, Cambridge, MA

Cheri Donnelly, Environmental Programs Manager, Cupertino Public Works Department, Cupertino, CA

This is the second year that Save That Stuff has been a participant in A Better City’s Challenge for Sustainability. On January 24, 2014, Save That Stuff joined Boston business and building leaders at the 2014 Challenge for Sustainability Kick-Off.

Looking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy efficiency in support of the City of Boston’s aggressive targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 25% by 2020, Save That Stuff, Inc. is participating in A Better City’s Challenge for Sustainability. The program engages businesses to adopt best practices in sustainability and energy efficiency through a platform of benchmarking and a peer support network to reduce their carbon footprint.

Recently launching its fifth year, Save That Stuff, Inc. joins more than 100 of Boston’s leading businesses and building owners including Boston Properties, Equity Office, John Hancock, Nixon Peabody, Nutter McClennan & Fish, Putnam Investments, and the Sheraton Boston Hotel to reduce energy use and increase our overall sustainability.

Boston’s business leaders are committed to making Boston a sustainability leader’s said Rick Dimino, President & CEO of A Better City. They know that energy efficiency improvements have a direct impact on their bottom line, make Boston more competitive, attract environmental and energy conscious tenants, and appeal to a young, skilled workforce that places a high priority on sustainability.

Over the last three years, participants in the Challenge for Sustainability have realized an aggregated 4% reduction in kWh, totaling more than 14 million kWh in 2012 – enough to power 1,300 homes for a year! Let’s see what we can achieve together at Save That Stuff in 2014!

Here at Save That Stuff, Inc. we have been discussing starting up an artist in residence program.

As a locally-owned recycling and waste management company, we care to take an active role in finding imaginative ways of processing the materials Boston’s commercial sector disposes as waste.€ And many of the companies we work with also want to see something more happen to their discards than waste-to-energy or land-filling.

We have been inspired by artist in residence programs at other recycling centers around the nation. Both RAIR in Philadelphia, and Recology in San Francisco, engage artists to take a creative and critical approach to reusing materials that end up at local recycling centers.

Over the past 10 years, Save That Stuff has grown to take in a diverse range of materials for recycling and repurposing. Over the years, we’ve partnered with groups like Extras For Creative Reuse in an effort to extend the life of reusable materials that come to our facility.

A next step for us is to be a resource for an artistic community in the Greater Boston Area. We’d like to see some of the hard to recycle items we have serve artists with raw materials for creative works.

A few weeks ago, Save That Stuff hosted a tour for a group of students led by Jane D. Marsching, associate professor at the MassArt Studio Foundation. The students were enthusiastic about the range of materials that come through Save That Stuff.

MassArt students hold onto their recently-acquired treasures, accompanied by professor Jane D. Marsching and Save That Stuff president and founder Erik Levy.

Students discover a box of materials in Save That Stuff’s Center for Hard to Recycle Materials (CHaRM): MassArt. 

Erik: Everyone take as many as you want. You can come back.
Student 1: This is a Mecca right here.€
Student 2: Yes!

We do not yet have the resources to offer space on-site for an actual residency program. We hope to start with small partnerships, where Save That Stuff will provide the materials to artists or other community organizations to create sculptures, public installations, and more! We’re excited to see how a program will evolve.