Is Your Salad Habit Good for the Planet?

Every weekday, shortly after 11 a.m., a line forms at the Broadway and 38th Street location of Sweetgreen, the eco-conscious salad chain. By noon, the line has usually tripled in size. It often takes more than 15 minutes to get to the front.

The scene is similar at the Chop’t at 41st and Broadway, or the Dig Inn on West 38th, or the Just Salad one block south. In the heart of Midtown Manhattan, the evidence is hard to dismiss: Greens, once so unappetizing that parents all over the country had to beg and bribe their children to eat them, have never been hotter. (Almost as hot: their denser, younger cousin, grains.)

At Sweetgreen, the appeal is partly ethical. The ingredients are sustainably farmed, sourced from trusted partners and served with transparency. There are vegan, gluten-free and “warm bowl” options. There are raw beets and organic carrots. There is local feta. It’s enough to make the most wasteful among us feel good about consumerism. Is it any wonder that according to market research provided by Technomic, Sweetgreen is the fastest growing salad chain in the United States?

The moral overtones extend even to the trash. As customers pay and head back toward their various workplaces, they pass an oft-overflowing garbage bin with a proud sign above it that says that all of the company’s utensils, napkins, bowls and cups are plant-based, “which means they go in the compost bin, along with any leftover food.”