Green alternatives to Styrofoam

I had dinner this evening at Beau Jo's Pizza in Idaho Springs, Colorado, and I was pleasantly surprised that the requested "'to go' container" was actually pressed paperboard (like paper-fiber egg cartons), not styrofoam. There was some sort of moisture-resistant inner coating, but this was my first encounter with such a beast.

(They also beat their chest about use of rooftop solar PV and windfarm utility power, so it seems they're on a bit of a crusade -- which I'm happy to support.

Colorado Pizza Restaurants|Denver Pizza Restaurants

 

I've heard the water resisting/proofing laminates on paper cups and such render them unrecyclable. I admit that was years ago, and may no longer be true if it once was.

If you are looking for packaging for long term storage, you avoid the starch foam. It will attract bugs.

 

Before you get too smug, your paper to-go container has 2.75 times more energy than the equivalent styrofoam container. This is mostly due to requiring more material and the huge amount of steam required to make paper.

Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment

Next time take your own Tupperware container or split a meal with friend or spouse.

 

Another cool thing to do with Styrofoam cups is to lower them deep into the water. Take a cup and decorate it with a permanent marker, then put it into a weighted basket and lower it a few hundred feet into the water. When you pull the basket up, you will find a perfect miniature version of your cup. The pressure squeezes the cup into a small size.

Tom

 

True -- but the paper container should be (mostly) bio-degradable, depending on what they used for waterproofing. Saving energy is good, but we can eventually hope to get clean energy; styrofoam sticks around forever. (Ok, not quite, I know there was some work on recycling it, but it was much more complicated than just shredding and composting!)

Yeah. This was on vacation, so I didn't have my own re-usable container; also, because it was a vacation and at a restaurant I don't get to eat at very often, we ordered a pretty wide variety of food. When we eat out locally, we often do split plates.

 

A couple hundred feet, huh.
Probably not as impressive as putting them in a 100,000psi vessel.

 

Perhaps a great way to sequester carbon. Just bury the stuff in the pit mines that need to be filled in anyways.

 

Yeah, sounds cool, just tell me where exactly i'm supposed to find a pool of water "a few hundred feet" deep :welcome::focus::mod::cheer2:

 

Rats like it too.
I cant store starch packing peanuts in my basement or the bag will be full of holes.

 

Lake Michan or Lake Huron for starters...

 

Make the use of recyclable take-out countainers manditory to obtain a restaurant business license.

 

Lake Michigan:
average depth - 279 ft
maximum depth - 923 ft

Lake Huron:
average depth - 194 ft
maximum depth - 750 ft

Lake Superior:
average depth - 482 ft
maximum depth - 1,332 ft

Any of them will do.

Tom

 

We just put them in the 100k psi pressure vessel at work.

 

Do you end up with little diamond cups?



Tom

 

Quick, get that poster a batch of carbon fibre.

 

The company I work for, which ships billions of pounds of products every year, uses A LOT of styrofoam. A sa result, we have been exploring alternatives. Cardboard-type insulation is quickly compromised when water condensates on it. We have, though, found a supplier of fungus-based insulation that is similar to an egg carton in consistency and insulation, but is not compromised when wet. It is biodegradable since it is fungus that is grown. It's EXPENSIVE though! When they can bring the price down, we will be ready to do business with them. (I am not the decision maker in the process, but I have been fortunate enough to be on the team that explores and tests potential new packaging - which is a side project)

 

This may have been thought of already, but what about the possibility of using a wax or shellac on the cardboard?

 

There was a story on CNN today about using that fungus to make auto body parts.
Things that now use Styrofoam.Bumpers was one.