Meal kit delivery services provide pre-portioned ingredients and recipes delivered to homes on a weekly basis. While they reduce food waste compared to traditional grocery shopping, their packaging has faced criticism for environmental impact. However, studies have found meal kits produce 33% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than grocery store equivalents due to optimized delivery routes. Companies are working to offset emissions and encourage more sustainable options like vegetarian menus to lessen various environmental and social impacts.

1. Meal Kit Services:The Next
Environmental Initiative?
Lambert Diep
Dr. Potorti
SSC 356.O
Photo Source: (Green, 2019)

2. What Is A “Meal Kit Delivery
Service”?
• They are essentially pre-portioned ingredients with a recipe to follow
delivered to one’s home on a weekly basis
• The main goal is to save time on grocery shopping and take the guesswork
out of everyday cooking
• Specializations like Green Chef’s emphasis on vegan food and Home Chef’s
leniency to family-friendly cuisine work to cater to each customer’s
preferences (Green, 2019)
• During cases where people are opting to stay indoors (such as the current
pandemic), companies are promoting themselves as viable options for proper
social distancing (Kennedy, 2020)

3. What is the Issue?
• Services have come under fire for their heavy use of packaging which is used
to separate all the ingredients as well as keep the contents undamaged
• Packaging may involve plastic bags/containers, cardboard boxes, gel for ice
packs, liners for insulation, and various cardboard partitions
Photo Sources (Left to Right)t:
https://wmeac.org/meal-kits-near-zero-food-waste-takes-precedence-packaging/2018/
https://www.hellofresh.ca/green/
https://www.amazon.com/Rubbermaid-Commercial-Stackable-Recycling-FG571873BLUE/dp/B0038PCWNM

4. Environmental Impact
• A study published in the scientific journal Resources, Conservation, and
Recycling found that store meals produces “33% more greenhouse gas
emissions then their equivalents from Blue Apron” (Lambert, 2019)
• This is due, in large part, to their lower amount of food waste and
streamlined delivery system (Lambert, 2019)
• Though packaging is typically worse in meal kits, they aren’t the most
important factor when considering environmental impact (University of
Michigan, 2019)
Photo Source: https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/what-would-it-really-cost-reduce-carbon-emissions

5. Carbon Emissions Explained
• While personal grocery trips require individualized routes, meal kits follow
an optimized delivery route (University of Michigan, 2019)
• Meal kits also skip the step of being transferred to a retail grocery store
which further saves on carbon emissions (University of Michigan, 2019)
• In both personal shopping and meal kits, agricultural production costs were
the highest sources of emissions equating to 47% and 59% of all emissions
produced for a given meal respectively (University of Michigan, 2019)
Photo Sources (Left to Right):
https://blog.route4me.com/2016/12/delivery-route-planner-help-last-mile-delivery-optimization/
https://water.unl.edu/agricultural-production

6. Not All Companies Are Equal
Vegan/Vegetarian centered menus
generally have a lower environmental impact
(Greene, ”Are Meal Kits for Fun or Waste?”)
Menus with lots of dairy and
meat require more resources
and can up packaging waste
(icebox for meat preservation)
Photo Sources:
https://greenchef.com/menus/main
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/sun-basket-meal-delivery-service
https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/plated-meal-delivery-service
https://rastellifoodsgroup.com/resources/

7. Current Action
• Around 9% of United States households purchased a meal kit in 2019 which
equates to about 11.5 million households (Lindenberg, 2019)
• Many companies make their packaging recyclable however it is up to the
consumer to properly recycle them
• In general, companies have recycling instructions on their websites
• As of the 2020 calendar year, Hellofresh has partnered with Terrapress in
order to offset 100% of carbon emissions which is equivalent to around
50,000 tons of carbon and 24,000 kilowatts of electricity (Holbrook, 2020)

8. Solution
• Companies can still make changes to their packaging process in order to
reduce their environmental impact
• Government intervention to standardize the amount of packaging waste
• Non-consumers of meal kits can reduce their own waste by strategically
buying which includes (Ducharme, 2019):
 Not over-buying and educating themselves on food labels to reduce food waste
 Limiting trips to the grocery store to reduce carbon emissions
Picture Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7486405/Campaigners-blast-Hello-Fresh-32-pieces-plastic-delivery-
kits.html

9. Further Implications
• Meal kits can be used in the future to deliver healthy, nutritious food in a
more environmentally efficient manner
• Populations helped may include the elderly, the homeless, and more
• However, costs range widely from $5.99 a meal to upwards of $12.99 which
lowers the chance of meal kits being a viable option (Weliver, 2020)
*image does not include delivery costs hence lower cost shown
(Weliver, 2020)
Photo Source: https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/every-meal-kit-delivery-service-in-america-article

10. Further Implications (continued)
• The topic of labor issue arises as meal kits are still an agricultural food-based
business
• Research from UC Berkeley found workers in California are on-average paid
around $13.50/hour which is below the low-pay threshold (Sullivan and
Thomason, 2019)
• Working conditions are difficult with safety issues like weather conditions,
ammonia leaks, and sexual assault being frequent concerns ((Sullivan and
Thomason, 2019)
• Another social issue is animal welfare
• Vegan and vegetarian menus are being pushed by certain companies like Green
Chef which aim to assist consumers who want to move away from animal-based
products and therefore lessen their impact on animal welfare (Greene, ”Are Meal
Kits for Fun or Waste?”)

11. Works Cited
Ducharme, Jamie. “Why Meal Kits Aren't as Bad for the Planet as You Think.” Time, Time, 22 Apr.
2019, time.com/5573333/are-meal-kits-bad-environmental/.
Green, Danielle. “Best Meal Kit Delivery Service in 2019.” The Creative Bite, 5 Mar. 2019,
www.thecreativebite.com/best-meal-kit-delivery-service/.
Greene, Eleanor. “Are Meal Kits Recipes for Fun, or Waste?” Green America,
www.greenamerica.org/mealkitwaste.
Holbrook, Emily. “Meal Kit Delivery Company HelloFresh Will Offset 100% of Its Carbon Emissions.”
Environment Energy Leader, 13 Apr. 2020, www.environmentalleader.com/2020/04/meal-kit-delivery-
company-hellofresh-will-offset-100-of-its-carbon-emissions/.
Kennedy, Lesley. “Staying Home? These Meal Kit Delivery Services Will Keep You Eating Well.”
CNN, Cable News Network, 25 Mar. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/03/18/cnn-underscored/best-meal-
delivery-service/index.html.

12. Lambert, Jonathan. “Meal Kits Have A Smaller Carbon Footprint Than Grocery Shopping, Study Says.” NPR,
NPR, 22 Apr. 2019, www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/04/22/716010599/ meal-kits-have-smaller-carbon-footprint-
than-grocery-shopping-study-says.
Lindenberg, Brett. “27 Meal Kit Industry Statistics and Consumption Trends.” Foodtruck Empire, 14 Oct. 2019,
foodtruckempire.com/news/meal-kit-industry/.
“Recycling.” HelloFresh, www.hellofresh.ca/green/.
Sullivan, Jacqueline, and Sarah Thomason. “Popular Meal-Kit Companies May Be Creating Low-Wage, Dead-End
Jobs .” Center for Labor Research and Education, 7 Sept. 2019, laborcenter.berkeley.edu/release-popular-meal-kit-
companies-may-creating-low-wage-dead-end-jobs-study-finds/.
University of Michigan. “Those Home-Delivered Meal Kits Are Greener Than You Thought.” ScienceDaily,
ScienceDaily, 22 Apr. 2019, www.sciencedaily.com/release-s/2019/04/- 190422090844.htm.
Weliver, David. “Meal Delivery Companies Comparison.” Money Under 30, 27 February 2020,
https://www.moneyunder30.com/meal-delivery-comparison