The Case for Meal Kits: Environment’s Friend or Foe?

Some of the first complaints about meal kits were around the packaging. There has been research carried out to analyze the packaging of meal kits. Many meal kits include a cardboard box for storage but also packaging to preserve all the ingredients, individual packing for different ingredients, linen materials, ice packs, recipe cards and more.

The Association for Plastic Recyclers found "each had more than two dozen different packages, including one with 31 different pieces of packaging." Much of the packaging was also found to be plastic and many weren't recyclable. Another cause for concern with many meal kits is the ice packs they are delivered with. These are almost always non-recyclable because they contain chemicals which need to be disposed of safely and cannot be reused.

Read the full article from EcoWatch.