Zero Waste Grocery Shopping | Tips for the Beginner

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?

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If possible, buy them individually.

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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.

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I got them on Amazon.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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I think they’re nice to have even if you don’t have bulk foods.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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They just go up to the deli counter and ask them to put the product in the container.

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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

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most of them are, especially just regular egg cartons.

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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.

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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

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buy a lot.

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Most of the time it’s better to buy a bigger package of something you know you are going

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to continue to buy because it ends up being cheaper and it ends up being less packaging

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overall, especially when you compare it to buying multiple smaller bags of the same product.

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Now if you can’t even do that, then try to reduce your waste in other ways.

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Like I said, a lot of household waste is food waste.

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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.

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For more tips about reducing household waste, check out the blog post I linked in the description.

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I hope these tips will help you shop more zero waste.

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Thank you so much for watching and I’ll see you in my next video.

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