Some of you may have noticed we recently switched from serving our large salads in bowls to serving them on plates. (Plates are actually on order for side salads, they are just not here yet). You might be surprised at the reasoning behind this. Number one is related to sustainability and Modmarket’s overall environmental impact. Turns out that one of our biggest uses of water in the space is our dishwasher. Despite having the most efficient one we could buy, every load that runs through the machine uses a set amount of soap, sanitizer and water. Doesn’t matter if one dish or 100 dishes are in it, the cycle is pretty much always the same (at least how we use it). Our bowls do not fit well in the dishwasher. You can fit about 12 per load, and that is if you PERFECTLY load the tray, which does not always occur. Also, in order to get 12 on a tray, you have to stand the bowls on edge. This results in the bowls not getting as clean as we would always like which means they have to be rerun occasionally. Standing on edge also results in chipped edges, and once an edge is chipped, the bowl has to be tossed. A bowl needs to be used about 300 times before the eco impact of having a reusable bowl beats out having disposable ones. We have had bowls chip on their first washing cycle, and there is nothing worse than throwing away a brand new expensive bowl b/c it has a chip in it. So why are plates the solution? Well, first off, we can fit about 27 in the dishwasher at once. We will use less than half the soap and water to wash the same number of plates now. Second, we found a plate with a 5 year chip warranty. We found exactly one company that offers this. They make REALLY high quality plates. And according to their rep, they can afford the warranty b/c the plates are so well built, they will not really ever chip. Our testing has confirmed this, they are extremely durable. Third, the new plates look really sweet. The new plates are a little more expensive than our bowls were, but b/c if the chip warranty, that should pay for itself in a month or so of use. You would be shocked to see how many of our bowls were getting tossed because of chipping. I love things like this – we make a smart business decision that is also eco-smart. Obviously we save money the less plates we throw away and the less dishwashing cycles that we have to run. But we also are doing something good for the eco footprint of our restaurant in the process. Details like this are where a business likes ours makes its eco impact. I hate how all these restaurants are like ‘we have cups made of corn’ and everyone thinks they are so sustainable. Arggg. (Note: we use corn cups right now, but hopefully before the year is out we will have a MUCH more sustainable solution in place!)