How The Produce Box Keeps Local Food Fresh and Sustainable

If you’ve ever opened a meal kit box and been shocked at the mountain of waste—tiny plastic cups for every spice, bubble wrap around a single tomato, plastic bags for every individual item—you’re not alone. We've worked hard to minimize packaging with our deliveries and accept key materials back for re-use so that we can keep thousands of pounds of waste out of the landfill every single year.

Participating in our returnable packaging program is easy, effective, and designed to keep your fridge full without your recycling bin overflowing.

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Unpack the Good Stuff

On delivery day, simply unpack your Produce Box and enjoy the farm-fresh food inside. From juicy strawberries and just-picked kale to artisan bread and local yogurt, you won't be disappointed! Make sure to transfer your heat-sensitive items to your fridge and freezer as soon as possible.

Step 2: Save Your Packaging

Here’s what we can take back for reuse:

Your cardboard Produce Box (it’s coated on the inside to resist moisture and food-safe wear and tear)
Blue quart containers (used for berries, small potatoes, and other fragile items)
Rubber bands (yes, even those!)
Ice packs (we sanitize and re-freeze them)

Step 3: Leave It Out on Delivery Day

The day before or morning of your next delivery, just place your clean, reusable packaging items inside your empty box and set it outside. Your Neighborhood Ambassador will grab them for pickup -- and we’ll take care of the rest!

What We Can’t Reuse (Yet)

One of the items we can't currently re-use is the thermal insulated liner used for frozen and fridge-safe items. That said, we made a major process improvement in 2024 that cut our use of this packaging by 40% while retaining frozen/refrigerated product integrity—a massive leap forward. We're continuing to explore options that are more readily recyclable or reusable for keeping your meats, prepared food items, eggs, dairy, and more cold while they're on their way to your door!

Please keep and recycle your plastic clamshells for berries or lettuces and recycle or compost brown paper bags. We recommend keeping and reusing plastic bags! Simply give them a wash, let them dry, and they're great to store more loose produce or snacks in the future.

There may be some vendor-related packaging that ends up in the trash - like vented plastic produce bags that help keep your goodies fresh. That's why we do everything we can to reduce packaging on our end!

Bonus Tips for Success:

Keep your empty box somewhere visible, like near your kitchen or back door, as a reminder to place your next order.
Short on space? Stash the box in your garage or laundry room until your next delivery.
Want to reduce your delivery packaging even more? Try ordering multiple frozen or refrigerated items so we can pack them together in as few thermal bags as possible. Our new Bulk Savings on select meats like Joyce Farms chicken breasts, boneless thighs, and Firsthand Foods ground beef are great examples - plus, the more you buy, the more you save!

The Big Picture: Waste Less, Nourish More

Every time you return your box or a bundle of rubber bands, you’re part of a quiet revolution. You’re saying yes to a fresher food system and no to the disposable mindset of convenience-at-all-costs. And you’re helping us prove that small actions really do add up to big impact.

So go ahead—return, reuse, repeat. We’ll take the box. You keep the yums.