Meal kits(餐具)cut food waste but packaging is a problem
Home delivery meal kits can slash(大幅消减)food waste by more than two-thirds, but suppliers need to switch to reusable packaging to make them environmentally friendly.
That means leftovers are minimized. But while the delivery services score well on reducing food waste, buying the same ingredients from the supermarket almost always saves energy overall simply because meal kits use so much single-use packaging. The good news is that if you have meals that are tailored for consumption, people won't over-buy and you have less food waste. You fine-tune the portions to what people will actually eat.
Beyond the cost of the waste itself, thrown-away food generates methane(甲烷)that contributes to climate change. A 2018 report from the Boston Consulting Group found that the waste was set to soar by a third by 2030 when global food waste was estimated to reach 2.1 bn tonnes.
Meal kits can reduce transport emissions if they mean people take fewer trips to the supermarket. If people only went to buy goods that are unlikely to decay such as soap and toilet paper, they might only have to visit the supermarket once every couple of months. That delivery truck can carry meals for you and dozens of neighbors.
The study found that even if delivered meal kits reduced food waste to zero, they would still use up more energy overall than buying the same food from the supermarket unless the energy used for the meal kit packaging was cut by a fifth. All the environmental benefits are lost. But if the packaging can be reused, you can get some benefits.
A. However, meal kits are likely heading for the mainstream.
B. If it's single-use and thrown away, the packaging is a killer.
C. In that case, you might replace dozens of car trips with one truck trip.
D. Meal knits arrive on your doorstep by truck filled with every ingredient you need.
E. Tailor-made meal kits save waste by providing precise quantities of fresh ingredients.
F. If food waste was a country, it would rank third in emissions behind the US and China.
