WASHINGTON — Since opening Oyster Oyster in Shaw years ago, Chef Rob Rubba always had sustainability as part of its DNA. That mission couldn’t be more evident with a new partnership that turns being environmentally friendly into something you wear.
The plant-based restaurant recently started to sell T-shirts by New York-based Terratela, which was formed a year ago to help reduce wasteful practices and environmental issues in the restaurant and fashion industries.
The company takes post-industrial food waste such as soured milk and fermented corn sugar and uses the material to create the shirts in factories. Terratela works with scientists and chefs in other parts of the world, including Iceland and Mexico, using ingredients specific to the region and restaurants.
“We wanted to share their story of sustainability going beyond the plate,” Rubba told WUSA9. “We can do amazing things with waste and use it more as a product rather than something to discard.”
With a slogan of “wear what you don’t eat,” Terratela also collaborates on the artwork to highlight the restaurant’s key ingredients.
In the case of Oyster Oyster, the shirt is primarily made up of soybean hulls, seaweed and hemp. The designs are of oyster mushrooms.
“We're trying to give those restaurants like an opportunity to do a merch that's also sustainable,” Terratela cofounder Natalia Burakowska said. “Instead of a typical cotton T-shirt, we're providing this next gen material for restaurants to work with.”
Rubba met with the founders at a pop-up event in Philadelphia.
He said he quickly gravitated toward their mission, which would already amplify the restaurant’s current efforts, which include how ingredients are sourced to implementing a “zero single-use plastics” policy.
Rubba said they plan to sell the shirts as long as possible. They currently have a limited stock but plan to reorder some more.