Good Question: What's With The Styrofoam Egg Cartons?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- If you shop enough, you'll pick up on changes at the grocery store, and some of you may have noticed a change in the way you buy eggs.
More and more eggs are being sold in Styrofoam cartons.
The Market Pantry large eggs you find at Target used to be sold in paper egg cartons. That was, until about a month ago.
"We did put up the sign to let our guests know that we were going through a paper issue with that," said Amanda Spilde of Target.
Most Target stores have a sign near the eggs letting guests know there's a packaging shortage across the U.S.
"They understand things like this happen," Spilde said.
Pactiv Corporation is one of the largest distributors of paper egg cartons. In May, they had a fire that wiped out their facility in Macon, Ga. That's when Market Pantry and many other brands were forced to temporarily switch to Styrofoam.
Paper cartons can be composted. According to RecycleMinnesota.org, there are no curbside recycling options for Styrofoam egg cartons in the Twin Cities. Plastic egg cartons are actually the best recycling option.
Lund's, Rainbow Foods, and Cub also carrying a few brands of eggs that are sold in Styrofoam cartons.
Pactiv should be operational again by early 2014, meaning they'll start producing paper cartons again.
They aren't the only paper carton producer, but they are one of the largest.
