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every container that leaves our minneapolis kitchen is built to get used again. entrées go out in recyclable #5 plastic that most customers wash and reuse for weeks. bakery items go out in recyclable aluminum tins. hand your clean containers back to your driver at sunday delivery and we'll credit your account in tandocoins on the spot. that's it — no green stickers, no asterisks, just a container that lives more than one life.
our containers are designed to get reused before they ever hit the recycling bin — and we pay you (in tandocoins) for bringing them back so we can wash them and send them out again. ship, eat, return, wash, ship. same container, more meals, less waste. a plastic tub that gets ten lives beats a paper one that goes to landfill after lunch.
one for entrées, one for bakery. both are recyclable in twin cities curbside, both can be reused for weeks, and neither one pretends to be something it isn't. here's the plain-english version of what we ship in and why.
The white tubs your entrées show up in. Recyclable, reusable, microwave-safe, freezer-safe — and tough enough that most customers reuse them for weeks before they ever hit the recycling bin. The white color isn't an accident either.
The same aluminum tray your grandma's lasagna comes in. Cinnamon rolls, brownies, cookies, banana bread — everything from our bakery ships in these. Aluminum is one of the most recyclable materials we have, and unlike paper or plastic, recycling it doesn't wear it out.
we'd switch tomorrow if there was a paper container that could hold wet, greasy entrées, go in the microwave without leaching, and break down in a minneapolis backyard compost. there isn't one yet. so for now, white #5 plastic is the best option we've found — cheap, microwave-safe, freezer-safe, recyclable curbside in most twin cities zip codes, and tough enough that most people reuse it for weeks.
for the bakery side we use recyclable aluminum tins. they handle wet pastries, they're oven-safe, and aluminum can be recycled forever without losing quality. different jobs, different materials — and no green stickers on either one.
still looking: a truly biodegradable container that holds up to wet entrées. if you've come across one worth testing, send it our way.
recyclable plastic only beats compostable paper if the container actually gets reused along the way. here's what that looks like start to finish — the part most meal-prep companies leave out of the marketing.
entrées arrive in white #5 plastic; bakery items in aluminum tins. labels say what each one is — no green stickers, no claims we can't back up.
microwave, oven, or eat cold. #5 plastic is safe in the freezer and microwave at the temperatures you'd actually use.
most people wash and reuse them 5–15 times — lunches, leftovers, pantry storage. that's where the real climate win comes from.
hand clean #5 containers back to your driver at sunday delivery and we'll credit your account in tandocoins. damaged ones, or containers from other brands? we'll still recycle them for you.
recycling is good. reusing is better. hand your clean #5 containers back to your driver at sunday delivery — we count them, credit your account, wash them, and put them back into rotation. less waste, lower costs, real rewards. one balance, no codes, no expiry.
finish the meals, give the containers a quick rinse (soap optional), and stack them. hand the stack back to your driver at your next sunday delivery. we count and inspect them right there.
you get a confirmation email or text the moment we log the return. the coins drop into the same balance you already earn from orders — no second wallet, no codes, no expiry. if we mess up, we re-log it; nothing gets edited quietly.
apply your tandocoins at checkout the same way you'd redeem coins from an order. your account page shows the lifetime container count plus how close you are to the next milestone. the more you bring back, the cheaper your weekly meals get.
milestones stack on top of regular coins — they unlock automatically on your next order. no codes to enter, no claims to file.
that's the whole rule. dirty, damaged, or other-brand containers don't earn coins — but we'll still take them and put them in our curbside #5 stream for you. better to recycle them than throw them out just because they didn't make the cut.
a lot of what gets sold as "eco-friendly" packaging really isn't. when we looked at paper-based options, two kept showing up — and both had the same problem hiding in the small print. here's what they are and why we went with recyclable plastic and aluminum instead.
The kraft-colored containers that feel premium and say "compostable" right on the side. The paper part is fine. The catch is the PLA lining — a corn-based bioplastic painted on the inside to keep grease from soaking through.
Paper containers with a regular polyethylene (PE) plastic lining instead of PLA. The outside is paper. The inside is plastic. The marketing tends to focus on the outside.
we mapped out what actually happens to a container after a week of meals — once with the "compostable" version, once with ours. the gap between the marketing and the real outcome looked like this.
the stuff twin cities customers actually ask once they start looking past the "eco-friendly" labels. no marketing, no asterisks.
no green stickers, no overpromising. order by thursday and your meals arrive by sunday delivery across the twin cities.
see this week's menu