Zero Waste Grocery Shopping | Tips for the Beginner
- Posted: August 31, 2018
- By: Admin
- Category: Videos
Transcript
00:17
In the United States, 40% of food goes uneaten.
00:20
Since most cities don’t compost, that food ends up in a landfill.
00:23
Because of this, I think the very first step to zero waste grocery shopping is making a plan.
00:28
If you are just starting out with zero waste, then don’t worry too much about processed
00:31
foods and finding those types of things in bulk.
00:33
Focus on what you can easily change.
00:35
Do you usually buy mushrooms in a carton?
00:38
If possible, buy them individually.
00:40
Likewise, if you usually buy potatoes in a big plastic bag, then try buying them individually.
00:45
Of course, I don’t know exactly what kinds of individual produce your local supermarket
00:50
carries, so I recommend just doing your best.
00:52
Becoming zero waste is a long journey.
00:54
I use these reusable produce bags.
00:56
I got them on Amazon.
00:57
They were really cheap.
00:59
They work really well.
01:00
However I don’t recommend buying these unless you’re really on a budget because they’re
01:05
made out of polyester, which is not a sustainable material.
01:07
So it would be better if you either made your own out of scraps or bought some cotton ones
01:12
on Etsy.
01:13
They have a lot of those, a lot of different sizes.
01:15
I have I think this size and maybe a little bigger….probably about 5 or 6 of them.
01:21
I’ll try to link where I bought these down below if you are on a budget and want to get
01:25
something like these, but I do recommend either making your own or finding organic cotton
01:30
ones on Etsy.
01:31
I have a few of these bulk bags that I bought at Whole Foods.
01:34
They’re really cheap.
01:35
According to the tag, they’re 90% recycled cotton and 10% recycled PET which is kind of cool.
01:42
You can also find things like these on Etsy or you can make your own.
01:47
I do handwash these in between uses.
01:49
I think they’re nice to have even if you don’t have bulk foods.
01:52
You can use things like these for smaller items like pastries or bagels.
01:57
You can also use reusable containers for bulk foods.
02:00
These are just jars of pasta sauce that I cleaned out and I took off the wrapper and
02:08
tried to take off some of the glue.
02:09
For these, you have to usually ask your bulk foods store if they allow you to bring these
02:14
in because some of them (I’ve heard) don’t actually allow you to do that, which is pretty
02:18
unfortunate but you want to check before.
02:20
At Whole Foods, I bring something like this in.
02:22
I bring it to the customer service desk and they would weigh it or tare it for me.
02:27
I either write it on here or write it in my phone so I can tell the cashier when I get
02:32
up there how much this weighs so they’ll only charge me for the amount of food that’s inside
02:37
it and not the whole- the weight of the whole thing.
02:39
I rarely buy meat and cheese but I have seen other people bring their own containers and
02:44
put meat and cheese in there.
02:46
They just go up to the deli counter and ask them to put the product in the container.
02:51
I think it just depends on the store so don’t be afraid to ask.
02:54
I do still buy eggs right now but I try to make sure they are in a recyclable container
02:58
most of them are, especially just regular egg cartons.
03:01
I try to make sure that I’m not buying way too many, that my household will be able to
03:06
eat them all, and I make sure that they’re local.
03:09
I understand that a lot of people don’t have access to bulk foods, and can’t even
03:14
access produce without plastic packaging.
03:17
My best recommendation is to try to find either a farmer’s market or a local grocery store
03:22
because they will be more receptive to you bringing your own bag.
03:25
If you don’t have access to a local farmers market or
03:28
if your local grocery store doesn’t allow you to bring your own bags, then I would recommend
03:32
buying, for example, a bigger bag of rice, if that’s something you usually consume and
03:38
buy a lot.
03:39
Most of the time it’s better to buy a bigger package of something you know you are going
03:42
to continue to buy because it ends up being cheaper and it ends up being less packaging
03:46
overall, especially when you compare it to buying multiple smaller bags of the same product.
03:52
Now if you can’t even do that, then try to reduce your waste in other ways.
03:55
Like I said, a lot of household waste is food waste.
03:59
So if you’re going to buy food in plastic packaging, the best thing you can do is make
04:03
sure that you finish it all and no food goes to waste.
04:05
For more tips about reducing household waste, check out the blog post I linked in the description.
04:10
I hope these tips will help you shop more zero waste.
04:12
Thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you in my next video.