The Noodle Box Recycling and Composting

Since 2004, The Noodle Box in Victoria has been working with ReFuse and BFI, and in Vancouver with Sea to Sky Organics and Smithrite Disposal, as part of our extensive in house recycling program.

  • Our Noodle Boxes, chopsticks* and napkins can be broken down and turned into compost enriched soil mixes
  • All food waste, including vegetable trim is turned into compost
  • All cardboard, including waxed boxes, used paper, glass and tin cans are recycled or composted
  • We have switched our paper products such as paper towels and napkins to an unbleached 100% post consumer product

Our efforts have resulted in a 30% reduction in waste that we would otherwise be sending to the landfill.

Many people are still learning about our in house recycling program. After finishing your Noodle Box, remove the metal handle from each side of the box and place in the “Organics” bin. Please make sure that there are no foreign objects contaminating the compost. Such contaminating objects would be plastic cutlery, or any other plastic material, metal handles, pop cans, etc…

The Noodle Box Charity & Donations

The Noodle Box believes in participating in our communities in a positive, ethical and responsible way. We do this in a variety of ways, from supporting local business’, through to charity, and environmental stewardship. We do not participate in traditional forms of advertising and instead chose to take that advertising budget and put it back into the local and international communities of the world.

Locally we give both food and gi% cards for various events, auctions and raffles. These kinds of donations are given to those who approach us with requests. Some of the local charities that we give to are, The Victoria Women’s Transition House, The Victoria Film Festival, Weekend to End Women’s Cancer Charity Run, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, Rockin for Research Gala, Castaway Rugby Team , Childrun 2010, VGH, Hero Holiday, Victoria Boys and Girls Club, VI Fitness, Women in Need, Fringe Festival, the Memo Fund, The Chrones Colitis Foundation, and support for students traveling to help in third world countries. We feel that giving back helps to cultivate a conscious and supportive culture within our business and it enables us to develop positive relationships with the community who are our customers.

For the past three years each of our locations has taken part in Dining Out For Life. This is an event that raises money for Aids research. During this night between 5 and 9 p.m. each restaurant donates 25% of all food sold. We also promo Stella Artois bottles as Stella donates $1.00 for every bottle sold at all participating restaurants that night. This has been a special night and we get a lot of support and participation from our customers and staff. This helps to make it a successful night for a great cause and we will continue to participate in the years to follow.

Internationally we donate to disaster relief for things like the 2006 Tsunami, the 2007 earthquake in China, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. We feel these are causes that deserve the attention of everyone on a global level and during these times we donate money but also put donation boxes on our front counters with a write up of what has occurred. This helps educate our customers and get them involved in giving back.

Kiva is another organization that we give to. Kiva empowers individuals to lend to an entrepreneur across the globe. By combining micro finance with the internet, Kiva is creating a global community of people connected through lending. Kiva alleviates poverty and promotes dignity and accountability. To join our group go to www.kiva.org/team/thenoodlebox

Recently we have decided to focus some of our charitable efforts on the TLC Foundation (The Land Conservancy, a group dedicated to the purchase and protection of important tracts of greenspace), as we feel they are a great foundation and we feel a strong connection to their cause. We will be throwing a party to raise money for them on May 13, and with the return of the original Noodle Box cart at Thetis Lake this summer we have decided that 1% of the sales generated will go to them as well.

Starting June 1, 2010 we will be donating all profit from our re-usable bags to The World Food Programme www.wfp.org. This will get our customers using re-usable bags which is more environmentally friendly as well as generating money for WFP which is the world’s largest humanitarian agency fighting hunger worldwide. In 2010 WFP aims to feed more than 90 million people in 73 countries. It is an organization that is completely reliant on voluntary donations and we are happy to support their cause.