Cup of Noodle

I am going to make a very poor attempt to figure out just where my cup of noodle, which is very enjoyable for a lunch on a cold winter/fall day, came from and where it is going. The product was manufactured in Gardena, CA. I did a mapquest search and discovered precisely how far away Gardena is from my current location: 995. 27 miles. It is estimated to take more than 15 hours of drive-time to arrive there. That entails a large quantity of gasoline to transfer my cup of noodles from California to Oregon. 

Furthermore the packaging for the cup of noodles is only partially recyclable. The outside paper/light cardboard is recyclable. I will do so. The plastic wrapping around the styrofoam container is not recyclable; furthermore plastic is creating using a small amount of fossil fuels. Therefore by eating this cup of noodles I will contribute to fossil fuel use, and the damage done in oil fields upon the planet. 

Worse yet the plastic wraps around a nice layer of styrofoam. The styrofoam has a recycling symbol on the bottom of it, a #6. According to Wikipedia the product commonly known as styrofoam IS recyclable, but not to be used in more styrofoam--it can be put into other plastic products, which they aren't recyclable later. The problem? Not many places have the facilities to recycle styrofoam. If styrofoam is NOT recycled it ends up in landfills...pretty much, forever. Styrofoam does not degrade.

Luckily Oregon actually does have a place that will accept clean styrofoam, to recycle, for FREE. I think I've got that address down lower...but here it is: 4044 N. Suttle Rd. Portland, OR 97217 

I'd love to go into where the ingredients for the ramen inside my styrofoam cup came from, but I can imagine many of the ingredients came from asia, as well as from America, and many of those will be trucked long distances. 

I think that the environmental club here on campus ought to add new boxes to the recycling bins---clean your styrofoam, then get it all recycled. It would be a great project to initiate here on campus, especially considering styrofoam is sold in the bistro---and how easy is it to clean something before you recycle it?