I set a challenge for myself to grocery shop waste free for the month of February. For the last 28 days I have tried to purchase all of my groceries totally unpackaged while also incorporating new shopping techniques, like shopping the bulk aisle, bringing my own cloth bags for breads and grains, and bringing my own jars for beans and oatmeal.
Why grocery shop zero waste?
After looking through my trash can (read my blog post about this experience) I found that the majority of my family’s waste was from single-use plastics from food packaging, like plastic carrot bags and the liners of cereal boxes. These single-use plastics take approximately 1,000 years to decompose in the landfill (if ever) and can end up polluting natural areas like the ocean. Not to mention the amount of resources it takes to manufacture these items in the first place. I realized that I could be shopping differently and eliminate the majority of our waste, therefore helping the environment by reducing the amount of waste entering the landfill and saying “no” to single-use plastics with my dollars.
Zero waste grocery shopping kit
I learned that shopping zero waste is really easy! You will need to bring a few items with you to the grocery store for the bulk aisle, and it’s ideal to have an idea of what you will be eating that week so you know if you need to bring anything specific to the store. Watch my YouTube video for in-depth instruction on how to create a shopping kit. But here are the basic things to bring with you:
- Reusable grocery bags (so you can skip the plastic or paper take-away bags)
- Several different size glass jars (for the bulk aisle)
- An old egg carton (for loose eggs)
- A pyrex container (for deli meat or cheese)
- Several different size produce and/or cloth bags (for breads, produce, etc)
- A sharpie or crayon (for writing the PLU number on your jars and bags)
- Your grocery list
Execution
The first time I went zero waste grocery shopping it looked like this:
I calmly planned five dinners using the app Google Keep, then I assembled my zero waste grocery shopping kit, next I went to my local grocery store and searched for items on my list in the bulk section or unpackaged in the produce section, then I got frustrated because I didn’t bring enough jars to impulse buy (which I always end up doing), next I had to re-visit my meal plan because I couldn’t find gnocchi in the bulk aisle, then I started to get cranky because I had to go to another store to get everything on the remainder of my list, then I was exhausted and hungry because it took me three hours to grocery shop…
I was a bit of a mess the first time or two.
But by the third and fourth time, I really got it down. The biggest adjustment was finding a new grocery store that aligned with my mission and ethos. Enter, Lakewind Co-Op! This grocery store was only five more minutes from the one that I had previously frequented, yet I had never been there. Once I found a grocery store that offered me bulk goods and unpackaged produce, my grocery shopping life got a lot easier.
I continued to streamline the process by only planning for three dinners instead of five (we love leftovers at my house, so this worked well), and I left a “zero waste kit” in my car so I didn’t have to spend the extra ten minutes looking for jars and cloth produce bags. I also learned to bring a snack. 🙂
Results
I am so proud to say that this is the majority of waste that our family accumulated from grocery shopping for the ENTIRE MONTH of February!! Not pictured here are four wrappers that contained meat products and one tortilla chip bag.
Reflections on the month
I did find that I had to go without some items in order to stay zero waste. To be honest, some of these items I can go without for a month, but maybe not a year and definitely not for the rest of my life. For example, cereal. My husband loves cereal and eats it every morning for breakfast. In the beginning of the month he switched to oatmeal (available in the bulk aisle plastic-free!), but after a week he got sick of that. So then he switched to granola (also available in the bulk aisle plastic-free), but then after a week he got sick of that (do you see a pattern here?). He was a real trooper over the course of the month but was honest that going cereal-free wasn’t really working for him. So that might be something that we buy and I have to be okay with that.
We also had to go without some of our favorite snack items like tortilla chips, potato chips, pretzels, crackers, etc. This month I substituted these snacks for fig bars and bite-sized chia bites, both from the bulk section. But snacks are something that I am still figuring out. Even today during my visit to a new grocery store I found gummy worms and banana chips, both great snack options!
In addition, I am taking away two very important lessons from this experience:
1)It is about making eco-friendly choices and doing your best, not perfection.
2) Education is incredibly important for zero waste to have a greater impact. It is crucial that people aiming towards a zero waste lifestyle share their knowledge with others.
I have learned a lot over the course of this month and I am motivated to assess other areas in my life where I can decrease waste. Stay tuned!