Discover Schenectady has begun a voluntary program aimed at promoting eco-friendly business practices. The opt-in model was implemented after the County Legislature declined to adopt a formal law.
Discover Schenectady – a nonprofit organization that promotes travel and tourism throughout Schenectady County – has partnered with the Schenectady County Environmental Advisory Council to join the national “Skip the Stuff” campaign.
The campaign encourages restaurants and hospitality businesses to adopt environmentally conscious practices. Discover Schenectady’s Executive Director Todd Garofano says these include providing plastic utensils only upon customers’ requests, allowing customers to use their own refillable cups, and offering reusable plasticware.
“All of this by the way is voluntary, so you don’t have to do every single one of these in order to qualify for the program, we are just trying to encourage folks to do their share.”
As part of the partnership, Discover Schenectady will begin identifying businesses that engage in eco-friendly practices as “sustainability partners” and highlight them on the Discovery Schenectady website.
“But there is no pass, fail or anything like that it’s just on the honor system. A lot of folks are already doing these practices anyway so it’s just a way to highlight what they are doing to promote a sustainable environment,” Garofano said.
Participating businesses will also receive a Skip the Stuff sign they can hang in their store-front windows.
One Schenectady restaurant – Simone’s Kitchen on Jay Street – has already been participating in eco-friendly practices, even before this program was in place.
Co-Owner Bashir Chedrawee says the restaurant has been engaging in environmentally conscious practices since its first location opened in 2018. For instance, he prioritizes using ecofriendly disposables.
“We have a hierarchy, we go with obviously biodegradable is number one, compostable number two and then recyclable is number three. If we can get it bio-degradable we do, if we can’t we get it compostable,” Chedrawee said.
Chedrawee says most of the restaurant’s disposables, including straws and cups, are biodegradable. Although, Chedrawee says, finding eco-friendly alternatives takes a bit more work than using standard disposables.
“This is a principle thing, right, so you have to put in the energy to try find these alternatives and when you do, they are often more expensive, it’s just the name of the game,” Chedrawee said.
The new program comes after the Schenectady County Environmental Advisory Council passed a resolution advising the County Legislature to create a law regarding single-use plastics.
Former Environmental Advisory Council Co-Chair Portia Zwicker says the law never saw the light of day.
“The resolution we passed advises the legislature to on their own create some kind of similar legislation to what Albany County has,” Zwicker said.
Albany County’s law requires restaurants to only offer plastic cutlery upon request and bans the distribution of plastic straws outright.
Zwicker says that the partnership between the council and Discover Schenectady is an alternative to a law.
“Since that was the result and we still wanted to see something happen we decided to go this route,” Zwicker said.
In a statement, County Legislature Chair Gary Hughes says the initiative was brought to the legislature’s attention during a period when local businesses were still recovering from the pandemic.
Hughes said “Given those circumstances, we felt a voluntary, incentive-based approach was a more effective way to promote sustainability without placing additional burdens on small businesses.
Chedrawee plans to participate.
“If there is a campaign about being more eco-friendly like we’re in we do that already, so it just makes sense yeah,” Chedrawee said.
