Trashcans Recycling

Pre-packaged meal kits have become increasingly popular over the last few years. While the convenience of these kits may win you over, there’s another important aspect to consider: the astonishing amount of packaging they require. With many of these kits, each ingredient comes individually packed and clearly labeled to eliminate the need to measure at all. If you need one carrot, you’ll get one carrot in its own bag with a label that says carrot.

After a week of making a concerted effort to reduce the food packaging that came into — and went out of — my home, I realized there was plenty of low-hanging fruit to pluck: having my groceries double-bagged when I was too distracted (or just plain slow) to fish my nylon market bag out of my purse; the extra utensils, napkins, and condiments that came along with my takeout; the countless small plastic bags I used to transport items from the bulk bins to my canisters at home.

With so much being written these days about food waste, comparatively less is written about the wastefulness of food packaging. Yet food packaging waste accounts for at least as much as, if not more than, food waste. From complex, tri-fold plastic egg cartons to snack-friendly boxes of individually wrapped apple slices, it’s not uncommon to find two or more layers of “protection” between us and the food we eat.

The first step in my week of cutting down on food packaging was to take a hard look at my household of two, which seems to generate a lot more trash than I would like. I realized that even though I was doing a pretty good job of reusing and recycling, reducing the amount of waste I brought into the house in the first place was an area for improvement.