MILWAUKEE — Plastic Free MKE encourages businesses to become "Lake Friendly" by making decisions that benefit the long-term health of Lake Michigan.
Transfer Pizzeria in Milwaukee is one business making this commitment. The owner, Russell Rossetto, said they have multiple ways they dispose of waste.
“We have landfill, a recycling stream and organic waste that turns into compost,” said Rossetto.
Rossetto said he also avoids using plastics as much as possible. Instead, the pizza joint gives customers several options, including a bio bag.
“You walk into a store and any little thing you buy, they are putting it into a plastic bag. They are everywhere. They are ubiquitous,” said Rossetto. “That’s going to be in the environment, whether it blows into the lake or it goes into a landfill. That’s going to be in the environment forever, whereas these will break down.”
Rossetto said that ever since Transfer Pizzeria opened its doors in 2008, they’ve made decisions that were environmentally conscious.
That’s why it was recently recognized by Plastic Free MKE as one of the 24 Lake Friendly businesses in the Milwaukee area.
“We want to be certified friends of Lake Michigan. We are right next to it in the harbor district and we care a lot about it, and it’s just something that we agreed on and we felt great about being a part of,” said Rossetto.
Leah Holloway of Plastic Free MKE explained that a restaurant becomes designated as Lake Friendly when it offers no styrofoam and no plastic bags for to-go orders. It must also provide compostable alternatives and recycle.
“There are a lot of businesses that are already doing really good work. We want to lift them up, give them a little support, help them in any way that we can,” said Holloway.
Holloway said this campaign aims to raise awareness about the damage that plastic pollution causes in the lake. She pointed out that a majority of the trash in Milwaukee-area waterways ends up in Lake Michigan.
“Once it’s in the lake, it absorbs toxins out of the water,” said Holloway. “Plastic is made of toxic materials and all of that breaks down with the wind and wave, sun action into micro-plastics and micro-fibers, and it comes back into our drinking water system. Milwaukee Water Works filters out as much as that plastic as they can, but it is getting into our water.”
Rossetto said he is proud that Transfer Pizzeria is a Lake Friendly business.
“We feel that we want to set an example as a community institution as some place that is going to be here for a long time, and conducting our business in a manner that will help everybody and help ourselves,” said Rossetto.
From the beginning, it’s not only been about serving good pizza, said Rossetto, but also about taking care of the environment.