9 Best Eco-Friendly Meal Delivery Services in 2024

Eco-friendly meal delivery services sound great, but you might be concerned about the truthfulness behind these companies’ claims. And you don’t want to deal with wasteful packaging or services that rely on factory farms for their meats and proteins.

I’ve looked into packaging materials, studied ingredient sources, and researched sustainability practices to bring you the best eco-friendly meal delivery services on the market. Every service on this list has been tested at home by me and my team to check out the packaging in real life and taste-test the meals.

Green Chef gets my #1 spot for its commitment to organic ingredients. That’s because I think that being eco-friendly also means caring about the ingredients used to create the meals, not just the packaging and transportation methods. Green Chef is a premium service, but in my opinion, it can’t be beaten for ingredient sourcing (and that’s reflected in the taste).

The Best Eco-Friendly Meal Delivery Services Reviewed

1. Green Chef – Best Overall Eco-Friendly Meal Kits

Green Chef is the first USDA-certified organic meal delivery service on the market. It’s also the first organic-certified meal kit service by the CCOF (California Certified Organic Farmers). What’s more, the company effectively offsets its carbon footprint, making it 1 of the best eco-friendly meal delivery services nationwide. 

What’s on the Menu?

Green Chef proves that you can be eco-friendly without sacrificing your culinary quality of life. Its 45+ weekly recipes let you choose from a variety of world cuisines, and tags make it easy to find meals that fit your dietary needs.

The weekly menu features low-prep meal kits (under 30 minutes), 10-minute lunches, and brunches. You’ll find plenty of options for keto, high-protein, vegetarian/vegan, low-calorie and gluten-free dieters. The company offers an extensive Add-ons section that includes cooked proteins, breakfasts, lunches, and desserts.

Green Chef’s eggs and fresh produce are organic (most of the time), and some of the meats used are also organic. You’ll find options like organic beef and chicken on the menu, as well as wild-caught seafood that was sustainably harvested.

What Makes It Eco-Friendly?

The company is also focused on reducing packaging material waste as much as possible. We tested Green Chef and noted that almost all Green Chef packaging uses recyclable, reusable, or compostable materials. For instance, cardboard boxes are made with a minimum of 40% recycled content. And ClimaCell, a proprietary plant-based insulator, is used to keep your meal kits cool.

Inside the box, you’ll find the ingredients for each meal kit packed in paper bags made of 100% post-consumer recycled paper. These bags can be recycled once they’re clean or composted if they get soiled. Also, the plastic bags and sauce packets are made from low-density polyethylene (LDPE), which is recyclable. Lastly, Green Chef offsets 100% of its carbon emissions.

Is It Good Value?

Green Chef prioritizes sourcing high-quality, organic ingredients for every meal kit on the menu. The company works with local family farms and certified suppliers that undergo annual compliance inspections. Whenever an organic ingredient isn’t available, Green Chef will replace it with the best quality standard version and make it clear on the label.

At $9.99 per serving for the 4 meals for 6 people per week plan, Green Chef is a bit pricey. But this is to be expected, considering all the effort that goes into choosing the right suppliers and ingredients.

2. Dinnerly – Best for Minimal Packaging (And Budgets)

Environmentally friendly alternatives can be more expensive than less eco-friendly options. But Dinnerly makes it easy to support our planet even when you’re on a tight budget. In all fairness, you won’t find all-organic ingredients at these low prices, but the company has several aces up its sleeve.

What’s on the Menu?

The service has an extensive and unexpectedly varied menu. Dinnerly features a core menu with over 100 recipes every week that includes a wide range of dietary options. Some of these are vegetarian, dairy-free, vegan, low-calorie, and low-carb.

Dinnerly’s menu tends toward familiar comfort foods that use basic ingredients, which is less wasteful. This makes it easier to cook a wide range of meals, which extends your culinary reach.

Some favorites of mine are dairy-free Cajun Dirty Rice with Ground Beef, nutritious Herb Grilled Chicken, and kid-friendly Taiwanese-Style Steak with Black Pepper Sauce. If you’re mindful of your carbohydrate intake, try Shrimp Scampi Pan Roast. But if you crave spicy food, don't miss the Korean Beef Quinoa Bowl.

What Makes It Eco-Friendly?

You’ll find tags on the menu that mark certain dishes as a Climate Hero. This is applied to meals that emit between 0.2 and 1.1 lbs of CO2e, which is aligned with what the WWF and the UN consider to be a climate-friendly meal per person.

Dinnerly commits to offering high-quality meals at an affordable price. To offer these prices, the company has made some cuts to its packaging that also benefit the environment. For example, all of Dinnerly’s ingredients (except for the more sensitive ones) are packed together. That way, the company reduces the amount of packaging materials.

Dinnerly also allows you to opt out of receiving paper recipe cards. This is the only service I know that offers this option. Instead, you can use the digital version on your phone or tablet. The only downside to these recipe cards is that they don’t include pictures, which can make them harder to follow. Most other services, like Green Chef, include pictures.

Is It Good Value?

The quality of ingredients is high and may even include organic produce from time to time. Dinnerly has an extensive network of trustworthy suppliers that provide fresh produce and high-quality meat (antibiotic-free, humanely raised, and grass-fed). Find out more in our tested review.

Prices start at $2.12 per serving, making Dinnerly the cheapest service on my list. You can order for 2 or 4 people, between 2 and 6 meals per person per week. This makes Dinnerly a great option for couples and families.

3. Marley Spoon – Best for Climate-Friendly Meal Kits

Marley Spoon is a meal delivery service with top-notch flavor and variety. It features recipes from a range of world cuisines that come with ready made sauces and spice blends to keep the prep work easy.

What’s on the Menu?

The rotating menu of 100+ recipes is inspired by different cuisines from around the world. There's no lack of variety to keep your taste buds satisfied. Each recipe comes with a well-detailed recipe card. So even if you choose something a bit more complex, you’ll have no trouble turning it into a restaurant-worthy meal.

Around half of the recipes fit in the Under 30 Minutes category, and 20+ are plant-based. There are also lots of dairy-free recipes and around a dozen Premium meals each week. Premium meals are a bit fancier and may take longer to prep and cook (around 50 minutes), but found them quite impressive when we tried them. 

Marley Spoon's practice of revealing its upcoming meals 4 weeks ahead is something I value. It offers ample time to schedule your meals and make any necessary changes.

What Makes It Eco-Friendly?

The company commits to reducing its footprint and reaching carbon neutrality. It’s also always looking for ways to improve its packaging materials. Most of the materials in the delivery box are recyclable and there’s a great page on the website with details of how to recycle each element.

Marley Spoon has an extensive network of trustworthy suppliers and a sustainable supply chain. It also publishes a transparent recycling and sustainability report every year. Look out for meals tagged as Climate Smart, which is similar to Dinnerly’s Climate Hero tag in highlighting meals that fit with what the WWF and the UN consider a climate-friendly meal.

Marley Spoon offers customization options for about half of the recipes. Just like with Blue Apron and HelloFresh, you can choose different proteins or side dishes for your meals, which helps reduce food waste.

Is It Good Value?

One of the best things about Marley Spoon is that it caters to all kinds of dietary needs. Whether you're vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, or simply seeking healthier options, there are plenty of choices available. There are also tasty options for families and kids who need their meals quickly and easily.

At the end of the day, Marley Spoon is an affordable, family-friendly meal kit delivery service. Prices start at $4.99 per serving for the 6 meals for 4 people each week, but you’ll still get a good deal when ordering 2 dishes for 2 people.

4. Blue Apron – Best for Affordable and Sophisticated Recipes

Blue Apron knows how to balance comfort food with healthy options. Most of the meals include lean proteins, fresh veggies, and healthy grains – with the occasional indulgent pasta dish or meatloaf thrown in for good measure.

What’s on the Menu?

Blue Apron’s menu stands out by including premium recipes like steak and seafood dishes. Plus, the chefs know how to put together heavenly spice mixes, sauces, and truly interesting sides. Think crispy Gnocchi instead of boring mashed potatoes.

The menu features 4 distinct categories. These are meal kits with 2 and 4 servings, single-serving prepared meals, and add-ons. Meal kits require some time and effort on your part while you can serve prepared meals after a quick microwave heating. The Add-ons section boasts breakfasts, desserts, and a la carte proteins, among other offerings.

Blue Apron's Market offers a no-commitment way to experience its offerings. This unique feature is perfect for you if you're curious about what Blue Apron has to offer but aren't ready to commit to a subscription. You may also find prepared meals in the Market section.

What Makes It Eco-Friendly?

Blue Apron uses fresh produce and other high-quality ingredients to make sure each meal is as delicious as possible. While working on our in-depth Blue Apron review, we learned that the company works with a tight-knit network of trustworthy farmers, fisheries, and ranchers.

Blue Apron is also 1 of the few meal delivery companies that has managed to achieve its carbon neutrality goals. The company did this by purchasing carbon offsets and is now working on becoming a Net Zero company. Moreover, over 85% of the packaging materials used by Blue Apron are recyclable by weight.

There are over 100 family-run farms in Blue Apron’s network, and all of them use sustainable farming practices. This way, you can rest assured that no added hormones or sub-therapeutic antibiotics make their way into your food. Blue Apron is very transparent about its sourcing philosophy, so it’s easy to find the authenticity of its claims.

Is It Good Value?

Blue Apron prices start at $4.00 per serving for its Meal Kits plan, although the Prepared & Ready plan costs a bit more. However, it’s pretty good value, whichever plan you choose. The minimum order is 2 meal kits for 2 people, or 4 fresh, prepared meals each week. Note that you can order as many meals as you want by manually adding recipes beyond the offered maximum. 

Also, you can switch between meal kits and heat-and-eat options from 1 week to another. Place separate orders to have both in the same week.

5. Purple Carrot – Best Plant-Based Meal Kits

One of the best things you can do for the planet is to eat more vegetables. And if you want to increase your plant intake and reduce your carbon footprint, Purple Carrot may be the meal service for you. Purple Carrot’s menu is 100% plant-based and features meal kits and ready-made recipes for everyone.

What’s on the Menu?

The menu offer is diverse, with recipes like Gnocchi Al Pesto and Thai Curry Tofu Nuggets. In the meal kits section, you’ll also find several Less Prep recipes each week. And the Plantry section awaits you with snacks, beverages, desserts, and some veggie protein options. 

Still, the number of menu items is decent, but not especially large when compared to HelloFresh’s menu. At the time of my review of the best eco-friendly meal delivery services, Purple Carrot offered 24 meal kits and 16 prepared meals.

Most meals come with icons that help you identify their key attributes. Among other dishes, you can find soy-, nut-, and gluten-free options, as well as recipes high in protein and fiber. For an elevated dining experience, look for the Chef's Choice meals, marked by a knife icon.

What Makes It Eco-Friendly?

Purple Carrot works with a carefully selected chain of suppliers. The company focuses on using high-quality fresh produce that has been sustainably sourced to provide nutrient-rich plant-based meals. Purple Carrot isn’t an organic-certified service, but most of the non-produce items (beans, nut milk, tofu, tempeh) are organic.

Purple Carrot also has a social impact. It takes part in the Farmlink Project, an initiative designed to bridge the gap between farms with surplus produce and communities in need of food. What's more, it champions the cause of elevating vegetable intake while reducing meat consumption, citing numerous health and environmental advantages.

I’ve ranked Purple Carrot highly as it’s the only service on my list to offer a completely vegan menu. However, when it comes to packaging materials, it still uses a lot of plastic. Most of the containers and insulation used are recyclable, as long as your area accepts them. But for a vegan service, I’d have expected the company to blaze the trail when it comes to eco-friendly packaging.

Is It Good Value?

Not vegan or vegetarian? No problem! We tried Purple Carrot, and declared it to be a great option for anyone who wants to learn how to turn veggies into delicious and satisfying meals. And I can say that there are many accounts of meat eaters enjoying this service’s meals. 

Prices start at $11.00 per serving with the meal kits, and you can order for 2 or 4 people. You can order between 2 and 4 meals per person per week, depending on the number of people. The ready-made meals have a fixed price ($13 per serving), and you can order 6, 8, or 10 meals per week.

6. HelloFresh – Best Family-Friendly Meal Kits

It can be difficult to get your family to eat environmentally sustainable meals. This is where HelloFresh steps in with its extensive family-friendly menu. Many of the recipes are crowd-pleasers, and they're created with an ecologically conscious mindset.

What’s on the Menu?

HelloFresh boasts an impressive selection of approximately 100 weekly meal kits. This wide range ensures you can easily find meals that suit your preferences. For top-rated options, check out the Hall of Fame and Best Recipe dishes. 

Most of the meal kits are easy to prepare, but each weekly menu includes 5 Premium Picks. These are gourmet meals with a medium-level difficulty and a longer prep time (45 to 50 minutes). But the results are worth the extra effort! Also, HelloFresh’s detailed recipe cards will help you every step of the way.

Check out the on-site Cookbook for further cooking ideas. Browse dishes by World Cuisines, including Mediterranean Recipes, American Recipes, and African Recipes. You can also check out the Dishes section, which includes meal types like Pasta Recipes, Bowl Recipes, and Quesadilla Recipes.

What Makes It Eco-Friendly?

In terms of sustainability, HelloFresh is extremely transparent with its practices. You can read all about the suppliers that grow your foods and the methods used for this. The company has a dedicated sustainability team whose job it is to make sure HelloFresh remains a sustainable and eco-friendly company.

The company helps reduce food waste while providing you with more interesting options. This doesn’t mean the core menu isn’t varied. There are plenty of vegan and vegetarian options and meals inspired by cuisines like American, Japanese, Indian, Italian, Mediterranean, and Mexican. 

Is It Good Value?

HelloFresh is one of the most flexible meal delivery services due to its wide range of meal kits and customization options. We tested HelloFresh and were impressed that it lets you change, swap, or upgrade 12+ sides and proteins each week.

HelloFresh is a great option for large families since you can order for 2, 4, or 6 people. The price of the best-value box (6 meals for 4 people per week) is $107.75. 

7. Factor – Best Eco-Friendly Ready-Made Meals

Factor delivers prepared meals and makes it easy to eat well. Since it’s a ready-made meal delivery service, it doesn’t involve any cooking or prep, which is definitely an extra point for me. 

What’s on the Menu?

Each meal usually includes protein (animal or plant-based), veggies, and a starchy side dish. But this doesn’t mean the menu lacks variety. In fact, according to our tested review, the service offers a combination of American and international cuisines, such as Asian, Mexican, and Mediterranean.

Some Factor meals I find particularly appealing are Cavatappi and Italian-Style Pork Ragu and Grilled Steakhouse Filet Mignon. If you’re working out and looking for protein-rich dishes, I recommend Chicken Alfredo Pasta. If you’re carb-conscious, I think you’ll like Creamy Dill Shrimp Pasta.

And, if you want extra goodies like snacks or juices, Factor offers add-ons to enhance your experience even further. But its extensive Add-ons section boasts much more than that. For example, you can find individual proteins like Roasted Herb Chicken and desserts such as Strawberry Mascarpone Cheesecake.

What Makes It Eco-Friendly?

Factor uses high-quality ingredients. All the meals are made with fresh produce, sustainably sourced seafood, grass-fed meat, or antibiotic-free poultry to create fresh, flavorful entrees that meet diverse dietary needs. Factor has options for diets like keto, low-calorie, high-protein, vegetarian, vegan, low-carb, and flexitarian.

Additionally, Factor makes an effort to reduce packaging material waste. Prepared meals always tend to arrive in plastic trays, but Factor uses BPA-free recyclable plastic containers for its meals and insulates its boxes with reusable gel packs. Other plastic containers, like smoothie bottles, are also recyclable or reusable.

Is It Good Value?

Factor sources its ingredients from producers that follow strict welfare practices for animals. These farms abide by high standards, such as not using antibiotics or added hormones in the raising of their livestock. This way, you can be sure your meals are nutrient-rich and free of harmful toxins or preservatives.

You can order 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, or 18 meals per week. If you opt for a small order, the price per serving is higher. The best-value option offers 18 single-serving meals for $103.41 on your first purchase if you use our link.

The meals are single-serving, so Factor may not be a great choice for families. But if you’re on your own or in a couple and don’t have much time to cook, it’s worth a shot.

8. BistroMD – Best for Eco-Friendly Weight Loss

Diet food is rarely exciting, but BistroMD is working hard to demolish that stereotype. Its flash-frozen meals feature controlled portions of tasty, nutritious foods that help you lose weight and learn healthier eating habits. BistroMD was founded by a doctor and is currently supported by a team of registered dietitians.

What’s on the Menu?

To help with weight loss, the meals follow a specific formula. As such, most of the recipes include a combination of 40% protein, 30% healthy fats, and 30% carbohydrates. Also, each meal contains 25 to 30 grams of protein, low glycemic carbohydrates, and fiber to keep you feeling full throughout the day while keeping your blood sugar levels in check.

BistroMD boasts over 150 meals, providing a stable menu you'll like if you value consistency. The selection of available meals varies by plan. It ranges from approximately 25 recipes in the Vegan to 85 in the Keto Flex programs, reaching up to the full range for the Signature plan.

You can browse the menu by meal type – Breakfast and Lunch/Dinner – and Snacks. Some entrees I particularly like are Dark Chocolate Chip Crepes with Pork Sausage Hash for breakfast and Chicken Florentine Cannelloni for lunch or dinner. Snacks I prefer are Sweet Red Raspberry Cheesecake and White Cheddar Crunch.

What Makes It Eco-Friendly?

The service gets its ingredients from local, family-owned farms wherever possible. Also, the company uses environmentally responsible seafood and hormone-free chicken and beef. BistroMD follows ingredient standards from the Whole Foods and Center for Science in the Public Interest, and has published a list of banned ingredients it doesn’t use.

While frozen meals need more packaging than fresh meals in transit, BistroMD does a pretty good job. Once the dry ice has evaporated, the plastic bags and trays can be recycled with other plastics if they are clean. The box and meal sleeves can be recycled with paper products. There’s a video on the site that walks you through what to do with each element. The recyclable cooler liner is made from post-consumer and post-industrial materials.

Is It Good Value?

BistroMD offers programs tailored to specific dietary and health needs. These plans help support diets such as gluten-free, diabetes-friendly, menopause management, heart-healthy, vegan, and weight loss. We found the meals quite creative for low-calorie dishes when we tried out BistroMD.

BistroMD is a complete meal plan that sends 2 or 3 meals 5 or 7 days a week. However, with prices starting at $6.59 per serving, it’s not suitable for everyone.

9. Home Chef – Best Meal Customization Service

Home Chef is among the best meal delivery services thanks to ingredient customization options. When setting up your menu, you can exclude several ingredients that you dislike or can't eat and when selecting meals, you can change the main ingredient in most of them.

What’s on the Menu?

Home Chef has dozens of meals on its menu. These fall into categories such as Meal Kits, Oven-Ready, and Extras. This way, you'll know right away what kind of product you're getting and how much effort you'll need to put into serving it.

Meal Kits consist of standard and Culinary Collection meals. Both are made from quality ingredients. However, Culinary Collection meals consist of premium ingredients and cost extra. The Herbed Garlic Butter Filet Mignon is an example of a Culinary Collection meal, while standard meals include dishes like Spicy Buffalo-Style Chicken Pizza and Philly-Style Cheesesteak Enchiladas.

In addition to meal kits, Home Chef also has ready-made meals on offer. If you're in a hurry, check out the Lunch meals, which you can serve in a few minutes. Home Chef primarily focuses on meal kits, though. For a much larger selection of prepared meals, take a look at Factor.

What Makes It Eco-Friendly?

When exploring the menu, pay attention to meals that have the Customize It label. With these meals, you can change the main protein. For example, for the Sweet Chili Apricot-Glazed Yellowtail, you can choose between Salmon Filets, Steelhead Trout Filets, and Yellowtail Portions. Sometimes you can upgrade to more sustainable protein options, too. 

The company uses recyclable paper and plastic and focuses on reusable materials. You can check out a full unboxing in our tested Home Chef review to find out more information on its packaging. It uses a bit more plastic than similar services like HelloFresh, though. For example, its recipe bags are plastic while HelloFresh uses paper.

Is It Good Value?

Home Chef is an excellent choice for picky eaters thanks to its customization options. It’s also a good choice for people sensitive to certain types of food as you can exclude certain allergens when you sign up.

You can buy a minimum of 2 recipes for 2 people per week, with the ability to scale up to 6 recipes for 6 people. Pricing begins at $9.99 per serving. Note that the cost per meal remains constant regardless of the order size.

Quick Comparison Table

Tips for Choosing the Best Eco-Friendly Meal Delivery Services

If you’re interested in an eco-friendly meal delivery service, here are some pointers from a professional reviewer.

• Check the eco-friendly practices: Before choosing a meal delivery service, look up the company’s sustainability practices. Look for companies that help reduce food waste, source produce from local farms, and use compostable or biodegradable packaging materials. 
• Read customer reviews: Reading customer reviews is an excellent way to gather insight into a company's customer experience and quality of food. Check social media platforms and look for honest feedback from real customers. For instance, HelloFresh is a company with a great online reputation.
• Examine menu options: Check to see if the menu aligns with your dietary needs. Also, look for services like Green Chef, which offers organic and locally sourced produce.
• Check the pricing: Most eco-friendly meal delivery services tend to be on the pricier side (although, Dinnerly proves that eco-friendly meals can also be affordable). Make sure that pricing aligns with your budget without compromising quality or ethics.

FAQ

How can I make food delivery more environmentally friendly?

Try recycling as much of the packaging as possible. Green Chef, my top eco-friendly meal pick, does an excellent job of using reusable packaging and limiting its carbon footprint.

What is the most environmentally friendly diet? 

Plant-based meals require fewer resources and have a lower carbon footprint than meals featuring meat, seafood, or other animal products. Purple Carrot’s entire menu is 100% plant-based, and a Purple Carrot meal kit releases 72% less carbon into the atmosphere than the standard American meal.

What is the most environmentally friendly prepared meal delivery service?

Factor is my top choice for the most environmentally friendly prepared meal delivery service. Factor delivers delicious and sustainably-sourced ready-made meals that are free from hormones, preservatives, antibiotics, and artificial sweeteners.

Best Eco Friendly Meal Delivery Services in 2024 — Final Score