Diary of a Solutionista: Fresh Direct Boxes

I am old enough to remember when the bottled soda distributor would come to my house once monthly pick up our empties. No, I’m not in my sixties; I just grew up in the third world. For someone in their twenties, that might seem bizarre enough to be a novel idea. Herein lies my frustration with Fresh Direct.

The fabulous part about Fresh Direct is that you can get exactly what you want at your doorstep, more or less when you want it.

Who wouldn’t love that?
I did, until I unpacked my first order.

The not so fabulous part about Fresh Direct is this: they do not wish to play any role in collecting and recycling the many cardboard boxes that they deliver to your doorstep on regularly planned intervals. I just didn’t get it. So I stopped ordering from them, despite the litany of “freeness” they were offering to get me to come back. They did send a survey at some point, and I tried to be as direct as possible about my decision to not reorder until they reduced the volume of packaging they sent out, and did something about collecting and recycling the boxes.

They emailed me to let me know that they had reduced the packaging, which I’m happy about, but no word yet on the recycling program. So I’m halfway satisfied, but still not back on board. According to Streetsblog.org here's what they've done so far.

In the meantime, I’ve found a way to make use of those boxes, thanks to a brilliant suggestion made by a colleague yesterday.

So if you have any boxes that you would like to donate toward my next project, please email me so I can arrange pickup.

thanks!