Shake Shack Is Ditching Plastic Straws at Locations Across America

Shake Shack makes the switch to compostable straws

Danny Meyer’s ever-growing burger chain Shake Shack is eliminating plastic straws at all locations across the United States. Yesterday (Earth Day), the company tweeted about its plans to use “compostable, plant-based straws” instead of the plastic ones, along with the message, “We know we’ve got more work to do, but we’re excited to take this small step in helping to protect the environment.” The move was announced on the same day that the City of Los Angeles — where there are currently eight Shake Shack locations — officially banned plastic straws for companies with more than 26 employees (everyone else has till the fall to make the switch). Thanks in large part to the efforts of non-profit environmental group the Surfrider Foundation, ditching plastic straws became one of the biggest restaurant trends of 2018. By making the switch to compostable straws, Meyer and Co. are most certainly saving the lives of countless baby turtles and other sea creatures around the world.

And in other news...

• Gabriela Camara, the chef/owner of Cala and Tacos Cala in San Francisco, is moving to Mexico City to go work as an advisor for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. “I want to be sort of like a Human Rights Watch but for food,” she tells the San Francisco Chronicle. Camara’s restaurants in San Francisco will remain unchanged during the move, and the chef is also slated to open a new project with Sqirl’s Jessica Koslow later this year in Los Angeles. [SF Chronicle]
• Responding to the rise in opioid addiction across the country, Starbucks has installed needle disposal boxes in the bathrooms of its stores in 25 markets. The chain will continue to add these boxes to locations across the country, and managers can submit requests to have them put in their stores. [Business Insider]
• After a Chicago chain called Aloha Poke tried to bully other businesses into removing the word “aloha” from their names, lawmakers in Hawaii are now trying to establish legal protections for “Hawaiian cultural intellectual property and traditional cultural expressions.” [The AP; The Takeout]
• A truth bomb, courtesy of WSJ food columnist Tamar Haspel: There’s no such thing as “uncured bacon.” [WSJ]
• Beleaguered food manufacturer Kraft Heinz has named a new CEO: Anheuser-Busch InBev veteran Miguel Patricio. [NYT]
• And finally, here’s Conan O’Brien and Andy Ricker doing an absurd fake commercial for egg salad: