The Home Port restaurant in Menemsha has turned its back door green.

New owners Bob and Sarah Nixon and chef Johnny Graham saw environmental sustainability as an area where the landmark restaurant could improve in this, its 80th year of business, and they are starting with the huge volume of disposables that go through the eatery’s back door take-out facility every day.

This year Home Port customers will be taking home their boiled lobster, quahaug chowder and pecan pie in containers made from corn, bulrush and compostable paperboard. The restaurant is also sending its frying oil onwards for ethanol processing and running a multi-part recycling system. Chef Graham also hopes to see the restaurant help plan a new local composting program.

The Home Port managers have a commitment to local sourcing, and they worked with Eco MV in Vineyard Haven to find the best alternative packaging for its back door take-out meals. “We needed to find materials that can handle everything we serve, and that are also sustainable,” said Mr. Graham, the Home Port’s executive chef.

Mr. Graham estimates that about 85 per cent of the restaurant’s disposables have been replaced with sustainable alternatives.