I like mushrooms. I also like recycling. Which brings us to mushroom packaging. In the past when I purchased mushrooms, they were almost always found in the blue foam box like the one on the left. Foam of this type is not recyclable which left me feeling slightly guilty about making trash. Lately I've been finding them in a box like the one on the right, a corrugated recyclable package which makes me happy. But there are some problems. Often the paper package is too wet or dirty to be accepted by recyclers. Only if I can clean it up and dry it out properly do I toss it in the recycling bin. Also, the mushrooms keep better in the foam container! If I leave them even a few days in the paper one, the shrooms turn to a slimy mush! Rendering them inedible and the package definitely trash. So I have developed a compromise that is working out pretty well. I purchase my fungi in a paper container. When I get home I transfer them into the foam box. I then have a clean, dry paper container that can be recycled! And the foam box will last until the next millenium, I expect. Guilt solved, mushrooms stay fresh, everybody's happy. If you're coming over for dinner, you'll just have to pick them out if you're not.
2 comments:
Ooh, ingenious use of the old foam! I usually transfer mine to an air-tight tupperware as soon as I open the package, and I set a paper towel over the mushrooms before closing the container to help sop out any leftover moisture without over-drying the 'shrooms. I've wondered at times what a few grains of rice would do in the bottom of the tupperware...some day when I'm feeling experiment-y (though can we all agree that there are better experiments to be had with mushrooms? ha!), I'll let you know how it works!
Fungi experiments! Yay!
I've done the transfer to Tupperware thing, too, but rather than use the tight sealing lid I just reuse the plastic wrap from the original package. I am determined to reuse this blue foam container til it epically fails!!
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