--- title: Sandwich Me In Sustainable Restaurant Produces No Garbage description: Every day is Earth Day at this eatery canonical: https://time.com/75893/this-is-how-a-chicago-restaurant-went-100-garbage-free/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-25T11:45:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:09:05.650Z og:title: This Is How A Chicago Restaurant Went 100% Garbage Free og:description: Every day is Earth Day at this eatery og:url: https://time.com/75893/this-is-how-a-chicago-restaurant-went-100-garbage-free/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is How A Chicago Restaurant Went 100% Garbage Free twitter:description: Every day is Earth Day at this eatery twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Is How A Chicago Restaurant Went 100% Garbage Free by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 25, 2014 11:45 AM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Apr 25, 2014 11:45 AM UTC Jason Vrany wants to save the planet, one sandwich at a time. His Chicago restaurant, Sandwich Me In, prides itself on making great food at an affordable price and on the fact that they make almost no garbage. By focusing on recycling, composting and rethinking the way the typical fast-casual restaurant is run, Sandwich Me In has only produced eight gallons of trash in over two years of business. Many restaurants produce that much waste in a _single hour_. Vrany’s restaurant is built on sustainable business practices, including running on renewable energy and sourcing all of its meat and produce sustainably from local farms. Oh and that eight gallon bag of trash that the restaurant produced? An artist picked it up to re-use in a sculpture meaning that Sandwich Me In has put zero trash into the environment. Watch the video above to find out how they do it. **MORE**: [The Green Heroes of the TIME 100](http://time.com/74290/the-green-heroes-of-the-time-100/) **MORE**: [Want to Heal the Planet? Make Environmental Degrees Free](http://time.com/70605/environmental-degrees-should-be-free/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/75893/this-is-how-a-chicago-restaurant-went-100-garbage-free/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/75893/this-is-how-a-chicago-restaurant-went-100-garbage-free/"},"headline":"This Is How A Chicago Restaurant Went 100% Garbage Free","datePublished":"2014-04-25T11:45:38.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:09:05.650Z","description":"Every day is Earth Day at this eatery","url":"https://time.com/75893/this-is-how-a-chicago-restaurant-went-100-garbage-free/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Environment","Food & Drink","restaurants","Science topic","earth"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/75893/this-is-how-a-chicago-restaurant-went-100-garbage-free/","name":"This Is How A Chicago Restaurant Went 100% Garbage Free"}}]}] ```