Sweetgreen Is Teaming Up With Blue Hill To Make A Salad Out Of Food Waste

Carrot peels, broccoli stalks and leaves, kale stems, cabbage cores, romaine hearts, bread butts — these are the things we typically slide off our cutting boards right into the trash.

But they're perfectly eligible ingredients to be highlighted in a dish. In fact, they are the centerpieces of the the "wastED" salad, created by sweetgreen and Blue Hill.

But why use these "trash" ingredients? Well, about 40% of all food produced in the U.S. ends up in landfills, never to be eaten, but instead to create methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

Chef Dan Barber of Blue Hill is leading the movement of chefs who are finally putting their feet down. In March, he overhauled his New York City restaurant to open wastED, a pop-up centered on the stuff kitchens usually toss.

The salad also includes arugula, shaved Parmesan, spicy sunflower seeds, and pesto vinaigrette, and the vegetables are roasted in anchovy oil.

The salad will be available at all sweetgreen locations from July 28 to September 28. It's $8.60 and a portion of proceeds will be donated to City Harvest.