Bread stall, from a Pompeiian wall painting.

Wall painting from Pompeii (ca. 70 AD) depicting autumn produce: grapes, apples, and pomegranates overflowing a large glass bowl, next to a tilting amphora and a terracotta pot of preserved fruit.The presence of street food vendors in New York City throughout much of its history, such as these circa 1906, are credited with helping support the city's rapid growth.New York Vintage : Bronx : Little Italy - vendor with wares displayed.

Chinatown rapidly grew from four square blocks in the 1930s and 1940s to an area boasting over 20 square blocks today. As waves of Chinese immigrants came to New York, restaurants and businesses flourished, not only in Chinatown, but throughout various boroughs of the city. From the well known restaurants such as Chop Suey, to hybrids of American-Chinese cuisine like Chow Mein, Chinese food was making its mark on the city. Take a look back to the 1930s & 1940s to see some of the Chinese restaurants that became an integral part of the New York City landscape. Patsy's has been making some of the city's best pizza in a coal-burning oven since 1933.Pizza, sushi, indian, diner food (burgers etc), chinese, mexican, salads1. Styrofoam (Rating: 1). Ubiquitous clamshells for restaurant leftovers, hot-and-sour soup containers, coffee cups at PTA meetings.The bad news: All research shows that Styrofoam becomes a permanent part of our environment after we use it. Information on the health risks of styrene, which is used in the production of polystyrene plastics and resins, can be found on the EPA website.The good news: Many cities are passing laws that require restaurants to discontinue use of all Styrofoam products. While the technology for recycling polystyrene is available, the market for recycling is very small and shrinking. Many Americans are hearing from their curbside recycling agencies that they will not accept PS goods. The good news is that the current Biopolymer revolution (biodegradable polymers) is charting a path for producing environmentally friendly packaging material to replace those peanuts. Corn based and other seeds known collectively as soapstock waste lead the way. Some are already available as replacements. Perhaps the problematic recycling situation will be solved by replacing the product.Polystyrene recycling is not "closed loop" - collected polystyrene cups are not remanufactured into cups, but into other products, such as packing filler and cafeteria trays. This means that more resources will have to be used, and more pollution created, to produce more polystyrene cups.

Post-consumer recycled paper, bamboo, corn plastics, etc. are easily renewable resources. Post-consumer recycled paper, bamboo,corn plastics, etc. are renewable resources and they biodegrade when composted.

Closed Loop environmental solutions are engineered with one aim in mind: to divert resources from landfill.

WHITE 9X9 3-Compartment Clamshell Eco-friendly restaurant packaging made from Sugar Cane (Bagasse).Compostable restaurant take out boxes and packaging including plates, bowls and takeout containers. \These products are great eco-friendly alternatives to Styrofoam and plastic containers. FDA approved for direct food contact, and microwave safe! Sugar Cane boxes are non-toxic, and have zero impact on the environment. They are compostable in 45 days. Made in a 97% closed loop facility, which means that all material and production elements are 97% recycled, reused and consumed during the production of the product.

Kraft paper is a 100% biodegradable natural product. The pulp is made from long virgin fibres of maritime pine and is not bleached, to ensure minimum chemical processing and to retain the wood's natural colour.Kraft paper biodegrades entirely naturally. Just like the leaves from the trees, kraft paper decomposes naturally within a few weeks, returning to its initial form of cellulose fibres, which can be fully assimilated back into its original natural environment, with no adverse impact on nature or human health.