A small-but-mighty can that’s helping a Carmel restaurant save time, money and the planet.

There are an increasing number of ways that food waste is being diverted from the landfill. Some people compost at home, while others (less) bring scraps directly to farms. Many now use services created under SB 1383, a 2016 law aimed at reducing methane emissions from decomposing food waste. Jurisdictions across the state have established – or are working to establish – residential and commercial food waste pickup programs to turn scraps into compost.

But for Anton & Michel, a high-end restaurant off Mission Street and 7th Avenue in Carmel, they’ve begun tapping into another way to handle food waste. During busy seasons the waste often outsizes the capacity of their green bin, and so they’ve turned to a technological solution: an electric trash can called The Mill, which shrinks every 10 pounds of food waste to just 1.

“When you work in a restaurant, you produce so much waste. You should see our [food] bins, they are overflowing during busy times of the year,” says Loie Al Nimri, owner of Anton & Michel. “It’s been amazing. We plan to order four more.”

For every overflowing bin, Anton & Michel has to pay for additional pickups, or manually haul surplus to ReGen Monterey’s waste management facility in Marina. To save time and money, the restaurant decided a $1,000 investment in The Mill was worth it.

“Right now, it’s eliminating 70 to 80 percent of my food waste,” Al Nimri says. “Over the course of a year we [hope to] shrink 5,000 to 500 pounds.”

The equipment isn’t a composter, but a “food recycler.” It works by heating, drying and grinding food scraps into a dry, dirt-like material with a scent reminiscent of something sweet and earthy. What Al Nimri wanted to see was how much food one Mill could handle, how much power it demands, how durable it is, and where the food scraps would go.

“It kind of looks like coffee grounds and smells like dried spices, because that’s what’s left when you take all the water out of food,” says Amanda Plante with The Mill, based in San Bruno. “Food is 80-percent water.”

The dehydrated scraps, or “grounds,” are shelf-stable, which the chefs have saved for future pickup. One option is to give them back to the company to be turned into chicken feed, but they hope to collaborate with Dale Byrne, Carmel’s mayor-elect and Carmel Cares founder, to identify places where the nutrient-rich grounds can be used, whether as a soil additive or in the composting process.

While The Mill may seem like a no-brainer for restaurants, it’s primarily designed for residential use. Yet, eateries in New York and the Bay Area have started adopting these trash cans on a larger scale. Al Nimri, who plans to open another restaurant in Carmel and whose family owns several local spots – including Village Bistro, Pizza Heaven, Treehouse Café and Mission Bistro – believes the trend could catch on here as well.

“It’s been running nonstop,” Al Nimri says. “If the power assumption is in line, which we think it will be, we’re on.”