Yokohama Bay Sheraton

The Yokohama Bay Sheraton Hotel & Towers (“Yokohama Bay Sheraton”) is taking the lead in creating a food cycle in the community. They run nine restaurants in it, and for many years large amounts of food waste had been a challenge. The “Ya-Cycle” distribution is a possible solution. Ya-Cycle is a “self-sustaining recycling” system, a name meaning a cycle of vegetables as we call vegetables “Yasai” in Japanese.

They compost food waste from their restaurants through a customized machine and provide the compost to contract farmers in Yokohama City, Miura City, and Yokosuka City. Then, the vegetables grown with the compost are used as ingredients at the hotel’s restaurants again.

Yokohama Bay Sheraton has continued this initiative for over ten years since 2008.

Besides The “Ya-Cycle” project, the hotel began offering “Kanagawa Breakfast” in April 2021.

“Kanagawa Breakfast” is an all-you-can-eat buffet served at one of their restaurants, “Compass.” They use a wide variety of ingredients from Kanagawa Prefecture as part of their promotion for local produce and local consumption. More than 50 items include locally made ingredients, such as dried plums from Odawara City, tofu from Isehara City, eggs from Tanzawa, dried fish and seaweed from Miura City, and pickles from Mitsuzawa Cho.

The placemats and menu boards introduce their latest activity to customers. It is the hotel’s intention to get people interested in local consumption so that they support producers in their area by choosing local food.

1.Carry Their Food Waste over into a Recycling Distribution

Food waste costs to dispose of and creates an enormous environmental burden by generating CO2 when burned. Yokohama Bay Sheraton sorts out and recycles them under the Ya-Cycle distribution, so that food waste, which used to be discarded, is effectively reused.

2.Take Back Vegetables Grown with the Compost

Local farmers grow vegetables with the compost Yokohama Bay Sheraton provided. In this way, Yokohama Bay Sheraton and local producers are firmly connected. The connections are also influential when an emergency. For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic came up in 2020, many daikons (Japanese radish) were going to be disposed of because most of the local restaurants had to be close in Miura City. The Yokohama Bay Sheraton purchased those daikons and turned them into soup.

3.Support Producers under Local Produce and Local Consumption

Local produce and local consumption revitalize local industry and transparency of ingredients. Yokohama Bay Sheraton promotes Ya-Cycle with “Kanagawa Breakfast.” They are catchy and easy to understand, allowing visitors to learn about Kanagawa’s local ingredients and producers.