GreenDeals Daily

I’ve never been a huge noodle bowl/cup fan. Sure the styrofoam container is convenient and keeps the contents hot but it takes a bazillion years to decompose and they’re usually pretty pricey too. Gimme 29 cent ramen any day.

That said, I was excited to be sent a couple of Annie Chun’s Noodle Bowls. They’re far healthier than the fat-filled ramen I love to hate and come in a biodegradable bowl made from cornstarch. The soft noodles come packed in the bowl along with dehydrated vegetables, a sauce pouch and chopped peanuts. Both the Pad Thai and Sesame Peanut flavors I tried were good considering they took a mere 2 minutes to prepare, but no replacement for a good noodle joint.

I have to say while I commend Annie Chun for using biodegradable bioplastic bowls, I wonder how green they are. Sure they aren’t made from oil but they also aren’t recyclable - and unless you’ve got a backyard composter or curbside organics pickup, most people are just going to throw their bowl in the garbage where it will end up taking up space in a landfill. I cut mine up and put it at the bottom of a flower pot, I’ll let you know how that works out in a month or two.

Annie Chun’s biodegradable noodle bowls may be the greenest noodle bowl out there, but it’s still a lot of packaging for a bowl of noodles. With no organic ingredients and a $3.50 retail price (or a little more than $2 each on Amazon) - I can’t really call them a green deal. If you’re already buying a lot of non-biodegradable noodle bowls and really can’t manage the switch to reusable bowls, these may be for you (but I really can’t see how that would be a problem). Here’s my rating:

• Green: 2.5/4
• Value: 2/3
• Quality: 2.5/3
• Final GreenDeals score: 7/10

Buy Annie Chun’s Noodle Bowls for $2.21 each on Amazon.com