NBC NEWS - Restaurants generate a lot of trash: wrappers, cups, sacks and plates.  One Dallas, Texas restaurant is helping customers go green while you're eating green.

It's not just the vegetables that are green at Snappy Salads.

Chris Dahlander built it from the ground up - remembering a lesson taught to him by a Boy Scout leader on a camp out.

Dahlander says, "As I went through my adult life, certainly I've recycled and tried to reduce and reuse wherever I can, but when I opened this restaurant, I thought, ‘I really need to take this one step further,’ and really incorporated it into this restaurant.  I want to be healthy for the guests, but I also wanted to be healthy for the environment."

Green or not, Snappy Salads is ultimately about the food, and his customers keep coming back for more.

"The salads are always fresh and it's a good solid eating experience, and I've lost 20 pounds in the last 25 days too, which is really nice," says customer J. Scott Jackson.

The green theme extends to the naturally dyed walls and the tables, too.

"We found this in Oklahoma, it was a barn, we had it replanted and surfaced and made into a table so we tried to take these steps, the little steps that would make a difference in our world," Dahlander adds.

Everything involved with eating a salad is biodegradable as well, from the cup to the to-go container, to the flatware.  Under the right conditions it biodegrades back into dirt within 90 days.

Dahlander explains, "Made from corn.  It looks like plastic, feels like plastic, has the same properties as plastic, but again, when you put some hot water in it, you'll see it see it start shrinking and reverting back into dirt."

Expansion is in the future, and according to Chris, the work is just beginning.  He wants more restaurants to think green.

"Whether you believe in global warming or not, I think you can agree safely that we're not being good stewards of our resources like we should be.  So we've started, but we've got a lot of work to do," Dahlander says.

Chris says the potato starch flatware is edible, and with his homemade dressings, it might even be good.