This article first appeared in Crain’s New York Business

Hervé Houdré, general manager of the swanky InterContinental New York Barclay, whisks a visitor past the hotel’s ornate lobby to show off one of his most recent acquisitions: a composting machine.

The seven-foot-long appliance, tucked away in a former walk-in freezer in the hotel’s kitchen, emits a pungent odor, and the temperature of the room is uncomfortably warm. The GM barely notices as he opens a blue bin where top soil is slowly collecting, made from the kitchen waste that the machine grinds up.
“Composting in the city requires trucks to come every night,” said Mr. Houdré, who had been carting waste. “But we don’t need them anymore, and we’ll save money.”

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