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The protective barrierĭidn’t contain PFAS, but the company still had to do some field testing. It’s not so easily done without them.Ībout two years ago, Bassett says, Footprint’s team successfullyĬreated what the company calls a “bio-based” formula, meaning that the carbonsĪre derived from renewable resources, not fossil fuels. That kind of durability is easily achieved with fluorinated chemicals. If it doesn’t leak for 30 minutes, the bowl is ready for prime time. “The reality is that making a bowl that is PFAS-free, that holds up to water, holds up to oil, can be frozen with the shelf life of a year, in some cases, and also be microwave-safe, oven-safe, etcetera-and then after all that, completely disintegrate and basically be compostable once the consumer is done with it-is a massive challenge,” Bassett said.Īseem Das, founder and CEO of World Centric, the food packaging company that still makes Sweetgreen’s bowls outside San Francisco, described a common industry stress test: A fiber bowl will be filled with scalding oil, and heated to 220 degrees Fahrenheit. But making freezer-friendlymolded fiber bowls without PFAS turned out to be difficult. The idea was to embrace the growing bowl-food trend by selling single-serving frozen-food items that resembled what you might buy at a fast-casual place. Through a combination of judicious planning, scientific prowess, and dumb luck, Footprint was positioned to take advantage of sudden demand when The Counter’s investigation broke. The answer lies with Footprint, a Gilbert, Arizona-based sustainable packaging company working to eliminate plastic from the retail industry, co-founded by two former Intel engineers. So how was Sweetgreen able to beat so many others to the punch?

Sources: Compostable bowls without PFAS are tantalizingly close, but not quite The company’s statement echoes what I’ve heard from other industry New packaging out into our restaurants by the end of the year.” Our suppliers to develop new food packaging that is sustainably sourced,įunctional, compostable, and free of PFAS. Requirements, we want to continue driving change and identifying solutions thatĪre best for our guests and the environment. “Even though our current bowls fully meet regulatory Of sustainability, including sustainable packaging,” the company said, in anĮmailed statement. “We are continually working to remain leaders in all areas Chipotle, for instance, has been working actively on Still, by the end of 2020, the landscapeĬould look very different. Other restaurant chains have not yet switched to PFAS-free, even We certainly hope it will inspire and motivate other major “I think it will likely cause a major ripple effect among other majorįast casual chains. Public awareness campaign run by the non-profit Safer Chemicals, Healthyįamilies. Use of PFAS-containing bowls by the end of this year is a game-changer for theįast-casual industry,” said Mike Schade, director of Mind the Store, a national “The fact that Sweetgreen has made a commitment to phase out the Spread the word about the dangers of PFAS, Sweetgreen’s news has been cause for

So for consumer advocacy groups working to Thoughĭata about how many are sold each year are not readily available, Adam Eskin,įounder and CEO of fast-casual chain Dig, told me that a single Dig outpostĬan go through 1,000 bowls in a day. Since the municipal foam bans of the early 2000s, plant-basedīowls have been a rising star of commercial foodservice-but their considerableĮnvironmental drawbacks have not become well-known until more recently. Import records, Sweetgreen’s 40-ounce hexagonal grain bowls were shipped to the Paperboard,” the statement read, in part. (Throughout 2019, according to Time they’ll also be made domestically, and out of post-industrial recycled New packaging to all our restaurants nationwide by the end of 2020, at which Restaurants across the country to be PFAS-free. In an emailed statement to TheĬounter, Sweetgreen said it soon expects all of its 100-plus Without PFAS, these bowls would wilt and fall apart the minute they touched your lunch. At the time, fluorination was the only way to make fiber bowls-the beige, papery kind popular at food halls, food trucks, and fast-casual eateries-that could hold hot, greasy food. In an August 2019 investigation for The Counter (then called The New Food Economy), I reported that virtually all takeout containers made from molded plant fibers contain PFAS. The switch, first reported by Fast Company this month, is a considerable milestone.