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Buy bulk food to reduce packaging waste
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Buying bulk food is often cheaper than buying small quantities, so the eco-friendly packaging choice may also be the dollar saving choice.
Buying from the bulk isle
Most grocery stores carry a variety of scoop-your-own bulk options, such as coffee, tea, beans, rice, pasta, nuts, flour, sugar, granola, spices, honey, and oil. To make your bulk isle purchase even more eco-friendly, keep these two ideas in mind:
- Bring your own container: To further pare down your impact, take your own reusable containers or bags; some grocery stores provide scales for weighing containers before filling them. Large yogurt containers, glass pickle jars, and some plastic take-out containers work great for storing food.
- Avodi the temptation to stickpile!: It's easy to get carried away with the savings from buying in bulk and over-purchase only to have food go stale, which defeats the practice in the first place! Knowing how long foods typically last before spoiling will help you determine how much to get.
Other bulk food options
Buying pre-packaged food in bulk is another option. Many grocery stores carry pre-packaged food in super-sized bags, bottles, cans, and boxes.
But buyer beware: watch out for multiple small items packaged together that masquerade as 'bulk' options (flats of single-serving juice boxes rather than family-sized options or giant boxes of individually-wrapped fruit snacks, for instance). These don't actually reduce the total packaging you're taking home or the cost.
Find it! Reusable food containers for bulk food purchases
Equip yourself with your own reusable containers to use both as you shop the bulk isle and for single servings when you get home.
All Green Things 100% Hemp Reusable Produce Bag
Whether you're on the way out to the local farmers market or to Safeway, don't forget this lightweight but durable hemp produce bag, exclusively available from online eco-merchant All Green Things. Aside from fruit and veggie shopping, the bag can also come in handy as a lunch sack for the office, a travel tote, and more.Biofresh resealable zipper produce bags
Pick up some of these bags for fruits and veggies and put an end to food waste. These bags can be filled at the grocery store and then brought home where they'll keep your food fresh for longer.ECOBAGS produce bags
The ECOBAGS® Produce Bag is made of lightweight cotton, and comes in two convenient sizes. It is available in natural and organic cotton.KelseyPromo Corn Plastic Canister
These clear, biodegradable PLA plastic food containers come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Intended for use with cold food, these canisters come with a yellow screw-on lid. One-use options are also available.Laptop Lunches Bento Box
Perfect for all kinds of meal items and snacks, these modular-designed food containers are microwave safe and lead-free. They come with a stainless steel fork and spoon as well as a helpful user guide.SIGG Aluminum Snack Boxes
Put all manner of food items into these durable, leak-proof, lightweight aluminum boxes to send snacks and meals to school or work. Comes in a variety of sizes.Wrap-N-Mat sandwich and snack bags
Package meal items with care with these reusable, food-safe cloth wraps made with vegetable-based dyes. Sized 13" x 13" when open, they easily wipe clean and come in blue, green, red check, or eco-print.
Buying food in bulk helps you go green because…
- It reduces the amount of waste created.
- It prevents resources from being used to create unnecessary packaging.
Packaging of all sorts makes up about one-half of all solid waste in the municipal waste stream. Although at least 28 countries currently have laws designed to encourage reduced packaging, the US is not one of them. Instead, the burden of disposing of packaging waste is left to the consumer. And though access to curbside recycling programs has increased from 30 percent to 50 percent between 1992 and 2006, recycling rates have actually dropped.[1]
Consider, too, that most purchases add additional package-waste by being bagged in plastic as they leave the store. A plastic bag, which takes only one second to manufacture, is used for about 20 minutes on average and then takes 100-400 years to degrade naturally. About 16,000 of these bags are distributed worldwide every second.[2]
But waste from spoiled food is also a problem. In addition to package waste, 6.7 percent of the solid waste stream comes from discarded food from commercial and residential sources.[3] In fact, if just 5 percent of all discarded food had been recovered (for composting, donations, and animal feed) in 1995, $50 million in landfill costs would have been saved.[3]
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