What's in your meal kit box besides the food ingredients? Lots of plastic - and how do the recyclability claims hold up promoted by meal kit companies?
Sandie Childs from the APR (Association of Plastic Recyclers) wrote recently a detailed article in Resource Recycling on that topic. Anybody involved in creating new plastic packaging should read it.
You can find the article here.
Blue Apron, according to their own numbers, has delivered 159 Million meal kits. That also means 159 Million cardboard boxes and approximately 4 Billion individual plastic packaging items in these boxes. WOW.
The analysis details how the term recyclable is loosely used and can confuse customers. Just because the iconic "recyclable" sign is on a plastic package does not mean it is actually recycled in today's plastic recycling streams nor it is being recycled. Circular design, closed-loop recycling is actually a complex process and simply putting recycling labels on plastic packaging is not enough to make it happen.
It does not have to be this way. APR has developed guidelines on which plastics can be and are being recycled. Closing the loop is possible, but packaging designers need to make an effort to understand what the realistic recyclability of their package is versus the wishful or sometimes misleading. Talking to recycling experts as part of the product development effort can be eye opening. That's how you close the loop.