When myself and my childhood friends, Becky Brauer and Husein
Rahemtulla, founded Vancouver-based meal kit company Fresh
Prep in 2015, our mission was to create a
sustainable solution to food preparation.
Increasingly, popular meal kit companies are changing the way people prepare
meals around the world; but like so many others in the food industry, they are
not immune to the widespread plastic packaging crisis. Unfortunately, the
reality was (and still is) that the meal kit industry has a waste problem.
Unfortunately, food packaging comprises almost 30 percent of household waste and
less than 10 percent of that waste gets
recycled.
Typically wrapping individual ingredients in multiple, tiny, single-use plastic
packets and delivering kits in insulated cardboard boxes with non-recyclable
plastic ice packs, meal kit companies in Canada, the US and around the
Western world are among the culprits contributing to this wasteful food
packaging problem.
We were determined not to add to the growing packaging problem and environmental
strain that we had encountered in traditional meal kits — but rather, to provide
a solution. We knew there had to be a better way: Our plan was to look beyond
the current take-make-waste, extractive industrial model and adopt a circular
approach; one that aims to redefine growth and keep all materials in use.
Sustainability was the destination, and that journey started with packaging.
But it wasn’t as easy as we had hoped. One of our first experiments was using
dollar-store coin envelopes for packages, but it wasn’t long before quinoa
leaked out of the corners. Mason jars also seemed like an obvious choice at
first; but we soon found our packaging sites overflowing with inventory, not to
mention the cupboards of our customers, and they greatly increased the weight of
the delivery. Not easily deterred, we continued to look for solutions.
Recognizing that millions of people aiming towards zero waste imperfectly was
better than a handful of people doing it perfectly, we came up with a temporary
solution to diligently use plastic only on necessary items — but we never
stopped working on our big idea: a zero-waste meal
kit.
We hired a team of engineers and designers to make our vision a reality, and
even managed to get B Corp-certified along the way for our commitment to
transparency and sustainability.
Finally, after three years of research, development, engineering and investment
to reduce barriers to sustainability in the meal kit industry, Fresh Prep
launched its long-awaited Zero Waste Kit packaging
solution in 2021. Composed of
dishwasher-safe, BPA-free, reusable plastic and silicone; the containers are
delivered in reusable, insulated cooler bags containing reusable ice packs.
Our existing delivery system, where we visit the doors of customers every week,
allowed us to develop a circular system where our drivers conveniently return
these containers for professional cleaning before reuse for future deliveries.
We estimate that each Zero Waste Kit will save approximately 19 g of single-use
plastic per meal. At scale, if all Fresh Prep customers regularly order Zero
Waste Kits each week, we could divert 500 kg of soft plastic
waste
per week — that’s the same as the weight of a mini caravan!
Since day one, we have had a vision of eliminating all single-use packaging from
the meal kit experience. Over the years, this has involved many different
packaging iterations, as we experimented with multiple materials to store food
conveniently and sustainably for customers. We put all this effort in because we
believe that the onus to be sustainable should not fall on the consumer;
businesses are now responsible for turning the tide on plastic waste.
There is a better way to do business. We’ve heard time and time again about how
individuals need to do more; but the reality is, we need innovation and change
from businesses to enable the solutions that consumers are increasingly
demanding. It’s not about promising an unattainable
vision
or trying to offset your own emissions by making grand commitments, but offering
practical solutions that provide an easier cooking experience and an accessible,
sustainable solution for customers — without the added cost of time or money.
Now is the time to shake up systems that have created wasteful practices and
support new innovations that will be essential on our path to a more sustainable
world.
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Dhruv Sood is a UBC alumnus in Finance and Logistics. Previously an equity research associate, Dhruv is now co-founder and Co-CEO of Fresh Prep — Western Canada's most sustainable meal kit. He loves building things, oversees the engineering and technology teams at Fresh Prep, and has a keen interest in the never-ending construction projects as the company expands into new markets.
Published Jul 30, 2021 2pm EDT / 11am PDT / 7pm BST / 8pm CEST