Polystyrene and take-out food

In my previous post I mentioned that I bought a fancy worm bin for composting my food scraps. The bin arrived on Monday with instructions that told me I should have my worm bin set up and ready to go before my worms arrived. Well, that wasn’t the case. The worms arrived two days later and although I had the bin set up I didn’t have the bedding ready to go. Not a big deal but I decided I would just order some take-out from my favorite Chinese/Tex-Mex restaurant while I prepared the bedding for my worms. I don’t normally eat take-out but it’s sometimes a convenient time saver when you’re hungry but don’t care to spend the time fixing something to eat.

My food arrived promptly as it usually does but I was stunned to find out that my Mexican rice came in polystyrene instead of the plastic container they used to use. This was disappointing for two reasons. First, I reuse the plastic containers. The second reason for being disappointed was that now I have to dispose of the polystyrene. My first reaction was “I can’t order from this place anymore, what will I do for those rare occasions when I decide to order take-out?” I’ve decided that I actually have a couple of options. Stop ordering take-out all together, find another place to order from that doesn’t use polystyrene, order something that doesn’t come in polystyrene, or a final option that I was surprised had even occurred to me. Instead of having my food delivered I could pick it up and bring the containers I have from previous deliveries. I’m betting that if I ask that they put my food in my containers or lose my business they will likely comply. I’ll let you know how this works out next time I order.