A toast to the River Club for recycling

By DAVID MARTIN

I recycle the editorial department’s cans and bottles. It’s a form of penance for all the dirty mugs and scorched coffeepots my office career has left behind.

At the Deramus facility this week, I parked next Robert Keim’s SUV. Keim wore a chefcoat as he emptied two large plastic bins filled with empty beer and liquor bottles. I asked where he worked. The River Club, Keim said, describing it as like a country club but without a golf course. (Located atop the Case Park bluff overlooking the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri rivers, it’s actually one of the city’s most exclusive private clubs.)

Keim told me he visits the recycling center once or twice a week. He credited Howard Hanna, the club’s executive chef, for fostering a spirit of sustainability. Keim said that in addition to recycling, Hanna tries to buy local. “We try to stay as green as possible,” Keim says.

Keim says his recycling trips have enabled the club to chop the visits by Deffenbaugh’s garbage collectors from three times a week to two.

If Keim worked anyplace else, I’d close by encouraging people to patronize a business that minds where its empties go. Instead I’ll just try to remember to shoot a thumbs-up at next guy I see wearing an ascot.