A restaurant owner in Chicago who hasn't emptied the trash in nearly two years has a simple explanation: There isn't anything to take out.

 

Justin Vrany, 36, had the goal of being a "zero waste" restaurant in mind from the day he first opened his quick-service eatery, Sandwich Me In.

 

Two years in, Vraney's remarkable efforts are the subject of a new short film, below, produced by NationSwell.

 

Since Sandwich Me In opened its doors, its entire waste output is equivalent to what a restaurant of similar volume produces in just an hour, Vraney says. The bulk of the trash Vraney has dealt with didn't even come from the restaurant, but largely from customers carrying in items like plastic-lined paper Starbucks cups.

 

To achieve the goal of zero waste, the restaurant runs on sustainable energy, with food coming minimally packaged from local farms. Virtually everything -- from food scraps to spent frying oil -- is reused or repurposed.

 

"I practice the five R's,' Vraney said, referring to the environmentalist's credo of reducing, reusing and recycling. Vrany adds "Reject" and "Refuse" to his list, drawing a firm line against outdoor waste like junk mail and excessive packaging.

 

Vraney admits that achieving zero waste wasn't without challenges: He spent a frantic six months of the restaurant's early days working the entire operation by himself to keep labor costs low and has eschewed time-saving conveniences like pre-packaged broth; instead, he makes his own from the bones of the chickens he uses. In a scant two years, Vrany says he's turned a small profit.

 

Vraney says the restaurant's food costs are "really low" since none of it is wasted. Menu items are intentionally planned to intersect. Leftover veggies from one day go into a burger the following day and even food scraps are given to farmers to feed the chickens that produce eggs for the business.