Perfect fast food: Burgerville

Awhile ago I mentioned I love Burgerville.  I said I would post about it another time.  

GroveAtopia knows you have been waiting for that post, patiently enduring all the intervening posts, giving them a skim or perhaps even going so far as to read them just to be polite, wondering when this post would come.

Your wait is over.

This picture shows the two latest additions to the Burgerville arsenal of cool and list of reasons why I like the place.  

See that straw?  The wrapper says "Made From Corn."  See that cup?  The top says "compostable."   The rest is recyclable.   

That means that if you throw the top and the straw and its wrapper in your compost pile, it'll be gone in a few short weeks.  If you recycle the cup, you'll meet it again someday most likely in another form of plastic.  So once you finish your milkshake, it is really finished.  After a few weeks there is literally nothing left of it.

Contrast that with the dinnerware and cutlery offered by most other fast food restaurants.  At those places, once you finish, your food may be gone, but the stuff it came in will live on and on and on.   GroveAtopia knows this because I meet this stuff on the side of the highway when I pick up litter there.  Try to pick up a plastic drink top or straw after it has been sitting outside for a few weeks.  It crumbles into a million tiny pieces, each of which will live on indefinitely, none of which you think are worth the effort to pick up.

So if Burgerville can do all these cool things – the compostable straw and drink top – plus serve good fast food with fresh ingredients produced in the Pacific Northwest – plus use wind energy to power their restaurants – plus offer useful toys such as seeds, bowls and plates with their kid meals – plus use recycled napkins – plus offer milkshakes made with real ice cream and have a cool motto: Serve with Love, but not be hippies, then why can't all the fast food places do this?

Don't we wish we didn't have to drive all the way to Albany before we could eat at Burgerville?  Don't we wish there was one right here in GroveAtopia?