Lunch To Go, Not Forever - Takeout without Styrofoam
When I count my blessings, I almost always include among them that I have given birth to at least one omnivore. Ryan is our “good eater” - a ham lover at the tender age of one, he’s continued to amaze us with his adventurous palate. Salty, spicy, protein, legumes - he’ll happily eat it all, quite a contrast to his older brother, who went through such a long period of eating only white food that we referred to him as “the bride.” But starting at age three, Ryan’s favorite of all food has been “Chinese noodles,” his term for Chicken Chow Mein. He always votes for Chinese when we have take-out night, and occasionally requests Chinese noodles for breakfast. I admit. I do indulge my children’s food cravings, in part because I am so enslaved by my own (chocolate anyone?), and when the longed for food has even marginally decent nutritional value, bring it on. When Alexander discovered his love for tekka kappa, otherwise known as cucumber roll, in a very food forward Berkeley nursery school, I learned how to roll up some pretty decent sushi. Yet, Chicken Chow Mein is beyond my culinary confidence level - too much chopping, too many ingredients and how do they make that sauce?
Leave it to the ever-resourceful younger brother to find a steady supply of his favorite dish. One day, as we were leaving the market, Ryan sniffed the air and stopped in his tracts in front of ABC Chinese Fast Food. Did I mention this child also has a canine like sense of smell? “Chinese noodles!” he declared triumphantly, and only agreed to come back another day after I explained how the ice cream was turning to soup. Soon, the cash only lunch line at ABC Chinese became a fairly regular part of our routine: it satisfied some of Ryan’s deepest longings while tying in nicely with errands, like haircuts and visits to CVS. A “two item plate” served in a Styrofoam (the common name for Expanded Polystyrene, or EPS) “to go” box, with both chow mein and fried rice, orange chicken and either green beans or broccoli, shared between us wis a welcome break from lunches at home or sandwiches at the park, and often gave us leftovers for another lunch or snack.
Then one day, a bolt of eco lightening struck me from the pages of a book called WorldChanging: A User’s Guide for the 21stCentury. That Styrofoam your lunch comes in, which you enjoy for 20 minutes, NEVER GOES AWAY. It doesn’t decompose, and when it “breaks down” into smaller bits, it only clogs up the intestines of scavenging animals. Suddenly, I couldn’t imagine going back to ABC Chinese and their containers - the scales had fallen from my eyes, and the implications of lunch seemed permanent and overwhelming. For weeks, I avoided that mini mall when Ryan was with me at all cost - we went to other grocery stores, and delayed haircuts. But finally, his persistent questioning, “When’s our next Chinese noodle date, Mom?” prompted me to think more creatively about the situation, and the solution was no further away than my very own cupboard: our sturdy lidded pyrex which so efficiently stored our leftovers could be our Styrofoam stand in!
On our next visit, I packed in the glass container, and smiled at the owner. “Could you put our food in this instead?” I asked, not sure what he would do. “You know, Styrofoam never goes away,” I added. He looked slightly sheepish, but nodded and slid our order into the pyrex. And that became our new routine. We only go if I remember to bring the dish - and now Ryan reminds me. And occasionally I remind the owner that Styrofoam isn’t great for the Earth.
Last time we went, we saw one of the teachers from Ryan’s school getting her lunch there, too. She remarked on our unusual serving dish, and I told her the story. Then she said, “I didn’t know they would do that!” Hey, they want the business and given a few more Tupperware toting customers, they might start using something other than Styrofoam.
“Food service PS (Polystyrene aka Styrofoam,) by its nature, has a useful life that can be measured in minutes or hours. Yet, it takes several decades to hundreds of years to deteriorate in the environment or landfill.” From the Use and Disposal of Polystyrene in California, A Report to the California Legislature, December 2004
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Annie Barnes - Ecoist
Annie is a co-Content Editor for EcoPerks, with a background in education and publishing. She is on a mission to raise her two boys with a keen environmental awareness, which often entails discussing global warming over dinner, and occasionally bursting into the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle†song her son learned at school. Her passion for fresh organic food means that she can often be found at the local Farmers’ Markets and tending her home garden in Los Angeles, California.