Saving money and the environment at the supermarket!
> The most obvious and popular idea for being environmentally conscious is to bring your own bag. Plastic bags account for a large portion of landfill trash and are the most likely thing to be blown out of a landfill site. They kill animals when they are mistaken for food. They do not biodegrade. Ever. There are lots of gnarly facts about plastic bags at Greener Footprints.
Once you read that, come back here, and check out reuseit.com to get one, two or three of your own. I personally have six, since I do all my shopping in one trip. I use these bags at other stores, too. Reusable bags are not just for groceries anymore! Did you know a reusable bag only needs to be used five times to offset its manufacture?
Do NOT buy a reusable bag made in China of plastic! That defeats the purpose! China’s air is already super polluted from all the manufacturing they do for us. If you buy or accept one as a gift/incentive, you are creating the need for more to be produced. Stay away from them! Thank you.
> Buy in bulk whenever you can. The packaging of any product, not just food, is usually wasteful. You can buy a small box of cereal or you can buy five pounds. The larger amount creates less packaging in manufacture and waste when you are done, and it’s more economical with a lower price per ounce. Read labels next time you are in the store. Don’t just look at prices, check the price per ounce, and you’ll find that larger packages are cheaper in the long run. They may be more expensive to buy at the time, but you won’t have to buy again for a while.
This does not always apply to sale items, though! You may see peanut butter, for example, on sale at 2/$5.00, which sounds like a bargain, but if you look at the price per ounce compared to the price per ounce of a larger jar, you may be better off buying the larger package.
Most supermarkets have bulk bins now, like the health food stores and co-ops. This is really the most economical and environmentally friendly way to shop. The stores buy in large quantity, and you buy just what you need, bypassing the packaging of small items. You can bring your own containers to use (glass, please, not plastic!), making a bulk purchase even more eco-friendly.
Read more about buying food in bulk.
I have lived in many places where there are buying clubs. Check with your local co-op or health food store to see who their suppliers are, and do some research. Gather your friends and neighbors, and buy large quantities to split up and share. Fifty pounds of rice cost way less per pound than a single pound – very economical with very little packaging to manufacture and throw away.
> Reuse plastic produce bags, bulk containers, and the plastic-lined coffee bag. About 20 years ago, I ran into a friend of mine at the co-op. She had all her small bags from previous trips to reuse for produce, flour and grains. I thought that was genius! I don’t bring my bags back to the store, but they do get used over and over at home. I especially use the produce bags for harvesting from my own greenhouse and gardens. By the end of summer, my stash gets low!
Some people don’t use produce bags at all. They put their produce in their cart or basket, then (hopefully!) wash it well when they get home. Those carts can’t be clean! Reusable produce bags are also popular, so check out Reusable Bags for them as well as a host of other reusable products.
And you know those twisties that go around traditional produce and bulk bags? I use them over and over, and most recently, I tied up a circle of chicken wire with them to create a new compost pile.
I reuse the paper-bag-lined-with-plastic coffee bag over and over. It’s good for about six uses until it gets flimsy. It cannot be recycled or burned (which is what I do with my paper trash), so it is the perfect item to use until it can’t be used anymore.
For bulk items, like peanut butter, honey, liquid soaps, grains and flour, bring glass jars to use and reuse. Have a cashier weigh it. This is the tare weight and will be subtracted from the total cost when you check out, charging you for only the contents. If you must use the store’s plastic container, use it as much as you can to offset its manufacture.
> Bring whatever you can back to the store for them to recycle back to the manufacturer. Egg cartons can be reused. I buy eggs from a friend, and we keep swapping cartons back and forth. When I buy locally made tinctures at the herb store, I return the bottles, so they can be washed and reused. Sometimes I get a discount on their return.
This is not so much food-related, but it is something I do all the time. Since I do a lot of planting, I have a lot of pots, and I take them back to the nursery. Not the thin 6-packs so much (they are pretty mangled by the time I’m done planting!), but 4″ pots and larger can be reused. Please don’t put these in the trash! If they cannot be reused, they may be able to be recycled. Check!
> Buy organic or grow your own! It has been proven over and over that pesticides are toxic and do not belong in our bodies. They create birth defects and other physical and mental health problems. We were not meant to ingest things that are made in a factory and have 30 letters in their name! Some foods, mostly those with thick outer skins, do not need to be organic, but high cash crops and leafy greens should be. Read more about these choices by Dr. Andrew Weil.
- My Response to The Nature Conservancy When They Asked Me for Money
- America's Mantra - Consume, Consume, Consume
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Some very good tips Nan (as usual)! Great idea on bringing back bottles, etc to the store for them to re-use/re-fill. Any plastic bags we get are used around the house again and again. One plastic bag can be a trash can liner for a long time!
Thanks, Tara! I used plastic bags as trash can liners, too. They were perfect for the bathroom. We get them once in a while still, and I find uses for them until they can’t be reused anymore. I tend to do that with everything, I guess – use it til it is no longer useful. :)
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