Veronica Robin of The Loop Kitchen. Photos: Supplied.
Barrack Heights entrepreneur Veronica Robin is serving up sustainability with The Loop Kitchen — a new plastic-free meal delivery service helping the Illawarra ditch waste without giving up convenience or flavour.
Originally from Canada and with a background as a social worker for youth protection, Veronica has long had interest in reducing her use of plastics, finding alternatives and cooking meals from scratch as a way to “do her part for the planet”.
However, it wasn’t until last month that the three interests collided as she launched her business, offering a weekly rotating menu of meals that include meat and vegetarian options.
“I’ve been passionate about cooking and the environment for a long time and every time I talk about it and say, ‘I’m not buying this because it’s wrapped in plastic’, people start asking questions,” she said.
Veronica said their main issues were not knowing how to reduce their use of plastic or wanting to be sustainable but finding it hard to achieve.
“It’s extremely hard to be more sustainable without sacrificing convenience,” she said.
“I put that idea together while talking to my partner one day and thought, ‘What if I started doing this for people without the plastic?’
“I cook with ingredients that aren’t packaged in single-use plastics, and I package my meals in reusable containers.
“The reusable kit is then delivered – or picked up by the customer – and they have three weeks to return their reusable kit. I take the kit back, sanitise everything and it’s ready to go again afterwards.”
Veronica said among the innovative packaging was reusable Replated meal boxes, made by a woman in Sydney using ocean-bound recycled plastic and popular as reusable takeaway containers.
“She takes back the containers once they’ve reached the end of their life, if they’re cracked or the seal is broken,” she said.
“She takes them back and recycles them again instead of putting them into landfill.
“The recycling system, as much as we want it to work, only has 13 per cent of what goes into recycling actually recycled.”
Containers used for the sustainable meal delivery service.
Veronica said she was also using jars for soups and energy bowls, and they were either engraved by hand or had labels made from recycled cardboard attached with string sourced without plastic packaging.
Goods were also placed in an esky made out of compacted cardboard, which was tested to stay cold for 12 hours.
“My current focus is plastic, and I’m trying my best to source everything locally,” she said.
“I team up with local businesses that are happy to work on reducing their packaging waste.”
Veronica rents commercial kitchens and offers a menu ranging from Asian-inspired dishes to comfort food classics like curried chicken and mashed potatoes, not limiting herself to any one food style.
“I cook all sorts of food, but my aim is to cater a little bit for everyone, because sustainability is everyone’s business, from vegans to meat eaters,” she said.
Looking ahead, Veronica hopes to expand her service across the Illawarra and introduce workshops on waste reduction and sustainable living.
“Every small bit matters – the straw, the plastic wrapper for the granola bar and even the amount of tape used for wrapping a gift,” she said.
“The planet doesn’t need a handful of people doing zero-waste perfectly – it needs millions of people doing the small things, imperfectly, one thing at a time.”
Customers can explore meal options and learn more about The Loop Kitchen through her website and Instagram.
Menus are set every week, and orders placed from Sunday to Wednesday are delivered the following Monday to allow customers to start their week with fresh meals. Customers can choose from delivery, pickup at her location, or collection from The Source Bulk Foods in Shell Cove.
