Reimagined ramen comes in edible packaging

Hackers and college students crave ramen when they want to stock up on a budget, but if you're concerned about packaging waste, plastic wrap and foil packs start to weigh on your conscience . [Holly Grounds] was fed up with that compromise and found a way to have your wrapper and eat it too.

[Holly] first experimented with different bioplastics until she developed a recipe for "an edible, tasteless starch-based bioplastic that dissolves on contact with boiling water". Once that was accomplished, she then incorporated flavoring into the bioplastic packaging so there was no foil packet. She found that herbs and spices worked, but larger solids like shrimp could not be incorporated into the film.

For the finishing touch, she shaped the noodles into a disc so they fit better in a bowl for cooking. To cook the noodles, remove a round from the wax paper sleeve containing multiple servings, add boiling water, stir and enjoy. [Holly] says her ramen packets are faster to make than existing packets because there are fewer steps and the shape is optimized for cooking. It's a win-win for the planet and convenience.

If you want to see another pasta-wrapping wonder, we've already covered flat-pack pasta. Do you have your own project to reduce packaging waste? Submit it to the Hackaday Prize Save the World Wildcard Round which ends October 16!