Abu Dhabi Does Green

I’ve got some good news and some bad news about Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

First, the bad: Abu Dhabi’s resort buffets produce massive amounts of food waste. While this isn’t much different in Las Vegas or other buffet-laden destinations, it’s a problem.

Without local food recovery groups, Abu Dhabi’s resort restaurants, especially buffets, throw away tons of food each day. The Director of Kitchens at the Radisson SAS hotel, estimated that 10 percent of the buffet line went to waste (which sounds like an underestimation to me).

In addition, buffet items aren’t fed to the armies of hotel staff anymore. Food safety concerns apparently prevent this practice, which is still done at many Vegas hotels. Not sure why this can’t continue in the U.A.E…

Now the good: Abu Dhabi, in a move to address its post-oil economy, is designing a carbon-neutral city called Masdar. While Masdar’s government-backed planners promise to limit the city’s impact on global warming with a bunch of renewable and sustainable technologies, I hope they’ll address food waste (and apply these innovations for the 50,000 person Masdar City to the 1 million inhabitant Abu Dhabi).

Composting? Anaerobic Digestion? Mr. Fusion? Nothing would surprise me here.

Whichever technology, let’s just hope the issue of food waste is addressed. And minimizing that waste would go a long way toward being truly sustainable.