GREEN: I’ll take that in a balloon, please.
I’ve been paying a lot of attention to packaging recently. All other things equal — cost, quality — I’m choosing the product with the least packaging.
Which is why this caught my eye. Apparently, some folks over in Japan have figured out how to use balloons as packaging. For tofu, no less. (Click on the link to see a picture)
Crazy as it sounds, the tofu is packed in a balloon, and ‘opened’ by piercing it with a toothpick. When the balloon is pierced, it shrinks in size, leaving a relatively tiny amount of packaging waste, next to an egg-shaped chunk of tofu.
Compare that to the way tofu is traditionally sold here in the US — 4x 6″ plastic cartons with plastic covers, or foil and cardboard containers, and you’ll see it’s a big reduction in leftover materials.
What is really neat, though, are all the other potential applications for this. I’m thinking anything that isn’t ‘pointy,’ — from frozen veggies to 10-packs of socks — could be wrapped in balloons.
Tags: balloon, environment, green, packaging, tofu
