Plastic-Free Grocery Shopping Part One

Since it’s Earth Day tomorrow, I thought it was the perfect time to share a guest post series from my good friend, Melanie.

She has been sharing her progress on moving away from using plastics on Facebook and I’ve learned so much that I asked her to share some advice on grocery shopping without plastics.

While it’s easier to implement some of these ideas if you live in a city, I think we can all learn a bit on how to reduce our waste (and eat better in the process). Today’s post will focus on preparation and tomorrow’s post will actually go through a shopping trip with her!

________

Earth Day is tomorrow, and one of the major ways we are impacting the earth and our bodies is through our food packaging.

If you are like me, much of your trash and recycling is produced in the kitchen. The chip bags, yogurt containers, Tetra Pak boxes, milk jugs, and plastic wrappers around cheese and meat products I produce in the kitchen represents about 95% of my household’s waste.

You’ll notice in the above list, I co-mingled (so to speak) both recyclable and non-recyclable items.

Many folks are very eager to point to recycleable food containers as being “better” than non-recyclable containers. While that might be true to an extent, here are my top reasons for thinking that buying recyclable plastics is not really better:

• Plastics are bad. The more I read, the more I understand that most plastics, including the “BPA-free” ones and the compostable ones are messing with our hormones. Keep in mind that almost all packaging is lined with plastic, including cans and cardboard packaging.
• Recycling is Down cycling. Real recycling would take a plastic drinking bottle and turn it into another plastic drinking bottle. This rarely happens, and due to the aforementioned hormone issues, it’s not recommended to reuse disposable plastics. Our plastic bottles are actually downcycled into non-recyclable products. While downcycling keeps the plastic out of the trash longer, we’re just delaying the inevitable trip to the landfill.
• Sent to China. I live in San Francisco, and none of our recyclable plastics are actually recycled in the U.S. It is all sent to China. The lifecycle energy costs of a single “recyclable” bottle of water, therefore, is insane.
• Watch this. Shhh… just watch it. (Sound and depressing-ness.)

I was amazed at the impact I had on my waste and recycling by cutting back on my food packaging.

Before I get to specific tips, there are two amazing authors/bloggers that have compiled immense resources to undertake this next step, and I borrow from their advice frequently in this post:

• Beth Terry of Plastic Free: How I Kicked the Habit and How You Can Too
• Bea Johnson of Zero Waste Home

To get you started, here is a personal account of how I’ve started shopping plastic-free and (almost) zero waste.

Preparation

The biggest thing about waste free shopping is just planning ahead. There are a few things you’ll need to undertake a plastic-free shopping trip:

• Reusable grocery tote bags. I won’t go into the lifecycle of single-use paper bags, but I try to avoid them because they just pile up and can’t be reused for very long. Technically, yes, paper bags can be composted, so do what you can.
• Reusable glass jars. Quart and pint sized should do, and while reusing the jars you get from pasta and pickles is great, it’s a good idea to use heavy duty ones for hot liquids and for freezing to prevent shattering. Quart-sized Ball jars are good for hot liquids and also freeze well. There are lots of choices for glass jars that meet these requirements, however, so try a few different types before stocking up on a dozen.
• Cotton cloth bags. Preferably organic if you’re buying new, and if you have some old (clean) T-shirts, you’ll find lots of online tutorials (sound) for making bags from stuff you already have.
• Labeling. Ideally, a grease pencil or washable crayon to label your bags and jars with bulk numbers without using extra stickers or twist ties.
• Bulk Grocer. A nearby grocer with a bulk aisle or a farmers market (for great plastic-free produce, eggs, and more).

This last point is the hardest part about this undertaking.

While most major metropolitan areas in the U.S. have a Whole Foods or other health food store (I definitely recommend exploring your local health food stores!), some folks simply do not have access to these types of stores.

But don’t be discouraged–there is still a lot you can do to cut the packaging you bring home from any grocery store, just skip the below bulk tips and focus on the other tips tomorrow!