Taking the train in China is a relatively cheap, convenient, and low-carbon way to travel. One oddly enjoyable part of train travel is shopping for snacks before the trip so you don’t have to buy the expensive and unappetizing train food. This is the one time that I have no qualms about eating instant noodles and processed, packaged snacks. In preparation for the 18-hour (actually, 20-hour due to delays) train ride from Shanghai to Shenzhen, I bought a seemingly harmless package of dried seaweed. When I spotted it in the grocery store, memories of childhood flooded into my mind – the puckering feeling of the salty, dried seaweed as it touched my tongue, the flood of flavor as it melted onto the roof of my mouth, the spiciness that lingered on my lips after the seaweed had disappeared into my belly – and I had to have it:
As I opened the package, I noticed that there was an awful lot of packaging. First, the outside bag:
Then, the plastic tray:
The desiccant pouch (this literally accounted for 90% of the weight of the package):
And finally, the individually-packaged seaweed strips themselves:
And now, the most appalling part. There were only 7 packets of seaweed in the whole package!
I’m not sure if the seaweed was of low quality, or if I was too disgusted by the packaging, but it tasted like crap. I felt like throwing up all over myself. What happened to the good old re-usable plastic jars of delicious moto moto yama?
Of course, I deserve 100% of the blame of buying the package and creating that incremental demand for the product. My lame excuse – I thought there’d be a lot more seaweed in the package, because I was fooled by the mass of the desiccant pouch! Damn you, hydrophilic chemicals!!
I’ve noticed that excessive packaging is a huge problem in China. The digestive crackers I bought for the trip are also separately packaged into two-cracker pouches. Yet another reason to minimize our consumption of packaged, processed foods! Even though China’s per capita garbage production is still something like one quarter that of the United States’, it would be best to curb the problem before it gets worse.
You may have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, described by some as a floating mass of plastic twice the size of Texas.  But did you know that these patches exist in all of the world’s oceans? Here is an article describing a new study on the great North Atlantic garbage patch.
Lately I’ve been reminded about the three R’s that we learned as children – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. It sounds corny as hell, but it really is that simple. Sure, it may require a fundamental overhaul in the operation of our economy whose growth depends largely on overconsumption and waste, but abiding by the three R’s is the only way we can eventually reach a sustainable equilibrium with the earth’s natural environment.
October 13, 2010 at 15:15
You sound like a moron saying seaweed tastes like garbage. It is healthier than 90% of western snacks.Dessicant is TOTALLY necessary.
October 13, 2010 at 18:53
I love the taste of seaweed. It tasted like garbage because I was disgusted by the over-packaging. And yes, I think that through our comments we came to the conclusion that desiccant was probably necessary. Thanks for your comment.
August 30, 2010 at 15:54
I’m pretty surprised that dried seaweed even requires a desiccant, considering how much salt it already contains. Maybe they could just package the pieces in *more* salt.
Is there a good home use for the chemical desiccant packages? Can they be recycled and/or reused for another purpose once they reach their destination? Cat litter?
September 2, 2010 at 21:42
ah, but it is the salt content that draws water to it.. so if the cellophane is not moisture proof, as beto suggests, that salty seaweed is a moisture magnet! right?
here’s an article on re-using silica gel: http://www.ehow.com/how_5458917_reuse-desiccant.html
apparently you can re-condition it by simply heating it in an oven, releasing the water it has absorbed. and desiccants are useful for many things, such as storing jewelry and firearms.
August 30, 2010 at 13:50
the individually wrapped seaweed may be packaged in cellophane which, according to wikipedia, may not be moisture proof (all variations are waterproof, but not all variations block water vapor).
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellophane
September 2, 2010 at 21:37
a good theory. i learned from wikipedia that real cellophane is biodegradable! the article says that moisture-permeable cellophane is perfect for cigars because they need to breathe in storage, but in the case of seaweed, they should just use moisture-proof cellophane. perhaps desiccant is much cheaper than moisture-proof cellophane?
August 23, 2010 at 15:30
is the desiccant really necessary given the fact that the seaweed is individually wrapped? wouldn’t it only be useful if it were packaged in the same airspace?
August 29, 2010 at 23:47
Totally agree, the desiccant seems completely unnecessary. But I think that the big tubs of moto-mot0 yama with individually wrapped packets still have a small desiccant pouch in them. Anyone out there an expert on food packaging?