Sticks and Carrots for Santa Barbara Businesses June 9, 2009

I have declared a war on styrofoam, so as of late I’ve been  giving local business who use it the business.

Sticks to the following pro-styrofoam businesses:

1. Blenders

2. Jack’s Bagels

3. Los Arroyos

4. Joe’s

Carrots to these planet friendly businesses:

1. Crush Cakes

2. Fresco

3. Hummingbird Cafe - also a fair trade business

4. The Burger Bus – These guys get a carrot and a pomegranate for using only local, organic, and/or sustainably raised food

There are more of both, I am sure, but these are the businesses I have noticed in the past few days. After taking my Fresco left-overs home in a cozy, unbleached compost-friendly container made of post-consumer waste, I found the gigantic styrofoam box for a tiny piece of chicken at Joe’s outright offensive. Then, to add insult to injury the waiter   put the styrofoam in a plastic bag!!!!

I’ll tell you one place I will absolutely never go back to, and that’s Jack’s Bagels. I knew in advance that my bagel sandwich was going to get stuffed into styrofoam, so I explicitly asked them to not do that, and please just wrap it in a piece of foil. This was no high maintence order for custom ingredients or sauces on the side, it was a very simple request that probably even would have saved them a few cents. Whether it was spite or benign apathy I will never know, but when my oder came in styrofoam I decided they will not get another dollar of my hard earned money until they change their ways.

For such a fashionable city, I find Santa Barbara’s excessive use of styrafoam suprising since it is so passe. Even McDonald’s got rid of styrafoam nearly two decades ago!