environmentally friendly – Juniper and Daisies

Meal Kits are Complete Bullshit

When all of those first free meal box cards kept showing up in my packages, I thought that they sounded pretty neat. A box of food delivered right to your door with a nice little recipe attached. How cute. Then, I looked into them and realized just how flippin’ expensive — and stupid — they are.

As someone who knows how to cook, and knows her way around a grocery store, I couldn’t fathom the idea of paying $40+ for a box of food just for one meal. Why wouldn’t I just order some yummy take-out for that kind of cash and not have to cook? I shook my head in disbelief and threw the card away.

Then, the advertising went full blast as covid hit us all. Why leave your house when you can get all of your groceries delivered right to your door! Well, because we’re not all millionaires and you can curb-side pick-up damn-near anywhere for groceries? The commercials rang out, one, in particular, stating that they were cheaper than buying groceries. I’m not sure where they get their numbers from, and I really don’t want to know where they get their food from if they’re claiming they’re cheaper than heading to a grocery store. I have a hard time buying this idea because one meal at the grocery store won’t cost you upwards of $30–50 and won’t come with shipping fees. Plus, have any of you heard of sales?

Now, there are cheaper options, for sure, but only if you’re buying one meal, and definitely if you’re just choosing a vegetarian option. Most services state that they cost just under $10 per person. Again, if you go to the grocery store you can buy more food for that price. You also will only be able to eat that one portion, meaning that leftovers are out of the question, especially if you are a person who eats more than the designated portion. That would equal just more snacking in our house.

I know, I know, I sound like a cheap, grouchy old lady. And, I am. But, I’m also aghast that this took off so fast. How lazy have we become as a society that we can’t go to the grocery store and whip up a quick meal? You can make a healthy supper in less than 30 minutes; there is no need to get fancy for every meal. And, before y’all come for me screaming about sports and working hours and not enough time in the day. I get it. The box is still stupid, as you still need to cook. If you’ve time to follow directions from a fancy meal card and add even more garbage to the world with individual packaging, you have time to make a super easy meal that you bought from the grocery store.

The price isn’t the kicker for me, although it’s — clearly — a sore spot. It’s the waste. Everything is packaged when you get a meal kit. When, as a society, we’re trying to move away from plastic packaging, it just doesn’t make sense to be ordering more plastic through the mail. Some, as I’ve been told by friends, have switched to more environmentally-friendly packaging, but packaging thus the same. For all of you die-hard meal kit-ers out there, this next part will make you happy.

Though it’s a nightmare for the environment, meal kits aren’t necessarily as evil as I thought they were when compared to grocery shopping. Apparently, grocery shopping can emit more emissions. Emphasis on can. The main culprit is food waste. The easy fix? Stop buying so much and only buy what you need. Freeze or dehydrate what you won’t be able to use in time. It’ll save you from wasting food and will save you money. This emissions statistic also take into consideration driving to the grocery store, except…are you only eating meal kits 24/7? Surely, you would have to go to the grocery store for breakfasts and lunches, snacks, soap, perishable items like milk or yogurt. Also, what if you don’t drive to the grocery store and can walk, or bike?

This is just more sneaky marketing, telling you that a box full of food that’s been shipped from who-knows-where is better than going to the grocery store. Yes, certain parts of it can be greener for the environment, but it’s not the whole picture. The greener options also lean towards buying more vegetarian meal kits (although they do take into consideration the meat ones, too), which is something you can easily do if you head to a grocery store. The produce section is always front and center when you walk in.

You also get what you get. Meaning you can’t pick out your favourite brands of meat or vegetables. You can’t support that local farmer you love. I like my particular brands of food, as there are just tastier options out there. I also like to support my local farmers, instead of having my food shipped in from any place I know nothing about. Even if there are boxes that support farmers from your country, do you like their practices? Are they regenerative farmers? Do they care about the environment and their animal’s well-being? Worse, are the farmers involved in factory farms? Domestic doesn’t automatically mean good.

Want to still buy a meal kit? Try one from your local market. There are tons out there that are doing a couple of weekly meal kits prepared by their staff, and use the ingredient you love, know, and trust. Plus, you get to help out a local business.

The moral of this long-winded rant? Meal kits are stupid. If you’re just learning how to cook, and are unsure of what to buy, then buying a few boxes to get you started can be helpful. Then again, you can just open up one of these old things we call cookbooks and check out the ingredients list there, too.

Why I’m a Big Fan of Buying Eco-Friendly Products Before Using the Old

Switching to an eco-friendly lifestyle isn’t the easiest thing done. It takes time to find the products you like, in your budget, that actually work. It feels daunting, images of people posting their pretty zero waste mason jars filled with barely anything as the trash they accumulated the entire year (which, by the way, is total, absolute bullshit). You wonder how you can switch to the bar shampoo, usually sitting at $14, when you can barely afford that cheap $3 shampoo at the grocery store. You have no idea where to start and what to do, what makes the biggest impact and if you’re actually helping the planet.

It’s a lot. But, it really, really doesn’t have to be.

There are so many things that we’ve switched to doing, or not doing, in order to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle. Some things have been tweaked as they weren’t as sustainable as I thought, being that we couldn’t keep doing it and it didn’t fit well into our lives. While there is so much that we are doing, it still feels like we are not doing enough, which is a cyclical nightmare you can get stuck in unless you’re an asshole who owns 5 yachts and two private planes. Just one yacht is good enough, guys.

Instead of freaking out over whether or not you’re doing everything you can, know that you’re still doing the best that you can. Stop, Breathe. And, try again.

When I was phasing out plastic wrap in our home, I still had a huge box of plastic wrap that I used often. It was that behemoth from Costco and it felt like it would never be finished. I still had a good year or give left on that thing, but I jumped on buying beeswax wraps, thinking that they would be an absolute saviour and get us off of the plastic wrap train. I tried local and not so local and gave them a shot with some foods, saving the plastic wrap for meat and when I was out of beeswax wraps or got too lazy to clean them right away. I felt like such an eco-friendly star and told everyone to give them a try…even though they didn’t always stick well, washing them was a pain, and I couldn’t use them on all foods.

It’s 5 years later and I have zero beeswax wraps in my house. I also have zero plastic wrap. Instead, I have bowl covers and containers, some plastic, some not (because using what you have first is always the best option). I’m glad I bought the beeswax to try them out while I still owned plastic wrap. They didn’t work for us, which meant I would’ve just high-tailed it back to the plastic wrap life and never looked back. Instead, I pivoted and found new ways to store my food and now don’t miss the ‘ease’ of plastic wrap.

When I switched to bamboo toothbrushes, I still had plastic ones sitting in my drawer. Thinking the same as my plastic wrap, I tested out the bamboo seeing if I liked one product over another. Finally, I found what worked for us in regards to price point and feel. It may have felt weird to use a plastic toothbrush after months of brushing with a bamboo one, but it felt good at the same time because I had found something that I liked enough that using anything else was disappointing.

It’s easy to just jump to a store and start grabbing plastic-free products and cleaner beauty items, but not every single product works for every single household. And, heading to a store to buy every single thing eco-friendly really only works if you have lots of money to spend and don’t need to stay on a budget. Like everything you buy for yourself or your home, it’s all trial and error. After a couple of decades of dressing myself and picking out my clothes, I finally know what fits me and that I don’t need to stray from my brands, fabrics, or cuts. I know what coffee I like after trying many, and I know which shampoo bars work better than others and better than the plastic bottles.

Throwing away that less than friendly item may seem like a good idea, but using up what you already have while you find something to replace it is better for the environment, your wallet, and your habits.