Are zero-waste bars actually feasible?

For Amir Javaid, founder of Socio on Staunton Street, running out of stuff is kind of the whole point. Each cocktail on the bar’s menu features waste products, or, more palatably, upcycled ingredients, from a nearby restaurant. There’s Butter down the street, Hooked on Caine Road and Uncle Miguel on Peel Street. Sustainability is a term often thrown around in haughty circles while Hong Kong bars like Socio have been implementing green practices with little fanfare all along. Javaid says he likes “the idea of not being able to make a drink because there’s not enough of something”. It’s an idea that has seen Javaid build a community of F&B venues that, through his cocktails, reduce food waste in their neighbourhood. The furthest collection point is a five-minute walk, he says. Two months ago he launched an eight-drink menu, each tipple featuring an upcycled ingredient from a different SoHo establishment. Ezra Star, owner of Sheung Wan’s Mostly Harmless, thinks sustainability starts with community. “A lot of times when people open bars, it affects the entire neighbourhood and puts smaller places out of business,” she says. Instead, she prefers to work with local businesses such as traditional Chinese medicine shops to source herbal ingredients for concoctions such as non-alcoholic versions of fernet and chartreuse. The bar also sources everything locally, as opposed to using imported products, thereby reducing their carbon footprint. Mostly Harmless is testing the waters as Hong Kong’s first bar to serve only mocktails, and Star leases the whole building, which enables the bar to develop most of its ingredients in-house. For many other Hong Kong bars, however, space is scarce. Jack Byrne runs Paragon, an intimate 13-seater jazz bar on Peel Street featuring a namesake vintage hi-fi system and retrofuturist armchairs. Square footage is a commodity here, affecting everything from how the bar operates to its sustainability practices. One cocktail, the Rosas Milk Punch, is topped with a gummy made from upcycled citrus. Byrne says it’s a work in progress but the goal is to have edible garnishes made from upcycled ingredients on the menu in the next couple of months. Other than that, he says, “I try to keep it as streamlined as possible. I feel like there can be a lot of theatrics in cocktails, which adds to the waste element.” I feel like there can be a lot of theatrics in cocktails, which adds to the waste element Jack Byrne Despite catching on as a concept elsewhere, Javaid says calling Socio a sustainable bar would be inaccurate, “because there’s still a lot of things we need to fix regarding waste”. He points to the organic waste from the ingredients they take in from their neighbouring establishments. Javaid has been searching for ways to dispose of the upcycled oyster shells used to create his cocktail, aptly dubbed the Oyster Shell, for example. He’s currently in touch with environmental organisation The Nature Conservancy to join its Save Our Shells initiative, which recycles shells into reef substrate, to help re-establish local fish habitats. Hotels can take a different approach to sustainability. Federico Balzarini, who manages the Argo bar at the Four Seasons Hotel, says some practices come built-in, such as having an in-house composting machine. They also donate food waste to charities, which often have stringent restrictions on accepting donations with regards to safety issues, limiting the number of F&B venues that are able to donate. “So we’re not thinking of sustainability [only] environmentally,” he says, “but in a social aspect as well.” Balzarini believes one of the most effective ways of being sustainable is to drill anti-waste principles into training as well as research and development. “Why make one litre of syrup when you can do 100ml for testing? The result is the same, and then you scale it off.” Balzarini’s current menu, titled Combinations, focuses on different ways of using the same ingredients, making the best of what you’ve got. He’s old-school like that. “It’s something that needs to be taught to people in general,” he says. “We’re missing that classic upbringing, like how my Italian grandmother used to slap me for leaving one spoon of yogurt in the bowl. Not saying that we have to slap kids, but more so imparting that sensibility of the older generation.” Star agrees: “People think you need all this fancy s*** to do stuff. And that’s not necessarily true. You don’t need all that equipment to do something high-quality.” Byrne adds, “When sustainability was a hot topic years ago, people weren’t so concerned about that. But now we’re five years down the line, it seems people have realised that it is hard work keeping up an entirely sustainable menu or bar for such a long time.” A major issue is glass recycling. Javaid says they need to work on recycling the 40 to 50 glass bottles the bar goes through in a week, and in Hong Kong terms, Byrne says, “It’s not just the industry. Not all residential buildings have glass and plastic recycling bins. Often people have to carry it over to recycling centres. We need to streamline everything on a systemic level.” While many sustainable consumer products also come with a higher price tag, does it cost bars (and by extension, their faithful patrons) more to be sustainable? For Star, it’s a no. “If you do it right, it costs less. To anybody opening a bar in this economy, this is the perfect time to think about building sustainable practices into your programme.” Byrne says such practices have the most longevity when built into the venue’s design: “It’s much harder to do it the other way around. It affects everything. I think that’s why most places won’t commit to a sustainable programme, or haven’t maintained it.” Sometimes, it’s plain old ingenuity that gets you across the line. “Sustainability has got a bit too serious,” says Javaid. “For me, it’s also about having fun with how you get something most people throw away and turn it into a drink.” And despite having a broad sustainability programme at Mostly Harmless, Star is also the first to acknowledge its limitations. “That’s why the ‘Mostly’ is there,” she quips. “You’re never going to be 100 per cent.”

Are zero-waste bars actually feasible?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}What Hong Kong bars really face when it comes to going green

What Hong Kong bars really face when it comes to going green