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Could you, please, write down a monthly grocery list (and instructions if needed) to buy in a supermarket without carrying any plastic back home? Please, state your region/country/city.
I have tried that in New England and I have been unable to do so.
My local grocery store in the bay area of California has a large bulk dry goods and liquids section, and will tare your containers (measure their empty weight so you only pay for the contents.) Between that and reusable cloth and mesh bags, I can buy all of my monthly food without plastic, because I eat vegetarian. All the meat is in plastic, which makes a lot of sense for sterility purposes. Laundry detergent comes in waxed paper, as does dish soap. It limits my choice of brand and diet but is doable.
One can avoid this by using the butcher counter. They'll typically use a small sheet of plastic and then wrap the whole thing in wax paper, but it's easy enough to ask them to skip the plastic or just bring some sort of reusable bag/container yourself for them to use. Bonus, butcher counter bacon, at least in my area, is about half the price of the prepackaged stuff and is WAY higher quality.
At least where I live this is just out of sight, out of mind. Any butcher counter at a grocery store just unpacks plastic wrapped meat and puts it on display.
It's just same-same but different. You can buy from the butcher counter, but in actuality you just end up producing more trash.
Yes there's plastic in the process but the same can be said of any bulk buy store. They'll get the product in using large, likely plastic, bags. Not to mention the production chain.
Still the plastic waste in both cases is reduced as you are only using the large shared plastic container rather than additionally getting individually sized plastic containers.
Or if you have a trader Joes, there is no butcher counter.
Just a note: the "wax" in waxed paper has plastic in it more often than not.
Not all plastics are created equally. The definition of a plastic is actually quite broad in terms of composition and stability.
In the context of mass produced "waxed" containers, we're talking about PFAs and/or BPA.
Thanks so much. Produce section can be plastic free, although plastic bags are offered for comfort and some products have a sticky thing on each unit.
The reusable mesh produce bags are one of my favorite purchases. I used to hate the thin plastic ones on the roll in the produce section, but for some reason it never occurred to me to buy reusable ones. One day my girlfriend came home with a set she happened to see on a shelf at Aldi and I was blown away that it never even occured to me to find something like that.
At least in my area those stickers are both edible and biodegradable, so you should be fine?
What???!!!
Just tell me you are joking. Do they say so?
They're edible because they're non toxic, but you're not supposed to eat them. It's meant to not kill you if you forget to take it off the one time.
Snopes is saying no, not really. I supposed it depends on how you define edible. Pretty much everything is edible at least once in some sense.
I don't know whether to laugh or cry. "Dear Reddit, should I eat the stickers on fruit?"
I know this from drugs lol
Southern Ontario (though this is likely >90% true for most provinces in Canada)
Basically, the more processed something is, the more likely it is to be wrapped in plastic. It's possible to cook everything from raw ingredients and not need to purchase anything with plastic, but cooking takes time and effort, which is not something available to everyone.
That's the "main" list of things I buy regularly. It's certainly not plastic free, and while I'll do my best to avoid plastic, we shouldn't feel guilty for buying plastic if there are no other options or if the other options are too expensive - it should be up to our governments to regulate the usage of plastic and force the companies to change. As individuals, it's nearly impossible to effect change in the market, so just do the best you can.
At least over here, most butter is packaged in plastic lined foil.
Paper lined foil in Canada
Some places still have a glass bottle milk delivery service. You may find one near you.
Be aware a farmers market can carry the same produce you get at a grocery store. Look at where the farm is coming from, anything on the table not in season from that region was for sure bought in bulk.
At least for the brands that we buy, the cardboard boxes of powdered detergent have an inner plastic bag (presumably bc it's less likely to leak powder everywhere than just cardboard).
Harmony or Farm Boy branded milk comes in glass bottles, though there's still a plastic cap.
It really depends on what's available at your store. Also, if you think there's no plastic, there's likely plastic involved in getting your food to the store. I think your best bet might be going to a 100% bulk store and purchasing fresh vegetables and fruits.
That's also a tonne of work, a month of groceries. I'd recommend watching YouTube videos or finding a blog site or recipe book that fits your needs and tastes.
Edit to be more helpful:
Proteins in bulk include pulses, textured vegetable protein and even protein powder. Check vegan and vegetarian books and blogs for more info and other ingredients to purchase.
Vegetables and fruits, most things come in cardboard or waxed cardboard boxes. Avoid things like grapes and other fruits with long travel times from where you live, as extra pesticide and separation sheets are typically used to ease the extended travel times. Good luck.
Thank you. I think I misled with saying a month of groceries. I wanted to frame it so almost not necessary product was left out the list. For example, laundry detergent might not be a weekly buy, but likely per month. And I just wanted it to be included.
Over here there are not bulk product stores that I know of.
I think the only things you can really get anywhere that don't, to my knowledge, always have plastic, would be canned foods and eggs in cardboard, plus some fresh fruits and veggies.
Everything else is usually at least plastic lined or a plastic bag
Plastic's just cheap and incredibly versatile and while not using a pollutant like plastic would be cool I'm really curious what we would actually replace it with short of putting everything in fragile, heavy glass jars, (and I'm not even sure how clean the production of industrial scale glass is tbh), and just canning everything in metal (and I'm also not sure how clean can production is).
There's also the option of rinsing out the plastic containers and reusing them as take-home containers so that people don't take your tupperware and never remember to bring it back. Everyone one I know does that.
Canned goods usually have a plastic lining to prevent the food from reacting directly with the metal can.
Norway here. You'll not be able to buy a load of regular groceries without any plastics.
Unless you want to unbox/unwrap everything at the shop to put in your own containers before heading home. Like milk from the plastic lined cartons into your own glass containers, and meats, cheese etc into your own wrapping of some non-plastic type.
:-(
Not ever there!
I remember the first 10 years of my life (South America) living plastic free. It was possible to live with luxury.
On thing that I've seen people in this thread lamenting the lack of but which I actually have is milk in glass bottles.
I'm in the UK and we have a milkman who delivers twice a week. You can order milk, oat milk and orange juice which all come in glass bottles with foil tops. You then leave out your empty bottles for the milkman to collect and sterilise and reuse. I think he recycles the foil tops as well but I just put them in our regular recycling. He also brings eggs (in cardboard cartons) and butter (in foil-backed paper).
I have access to other things people have mentioned as well - laundry detergent, washing up liquid etc. can be refilled at the supermarket and local wholefood store and dry goods and fruit and vegetables can be bought loose/ in paper or reusable bags. Admittedly, I don't always take advantage of these options - mainly because I don't have a car and lugging these things home can be a pain. Supermarket deliveries are much easier and less time-consuming for larger items. At some point I'd like to get a bike that I can properly load up with stuff so I can do my big shops more sustainably because ordering online you often don't have control over the use of plastic.
50 years ago we received our daily two litters of milk in glass bottles and fresh fish wrapped in old newspaper paper (South America)
I've seen it in old movies so clearly it used to be a thing in the US too but not anymore.
There are stores that sell glass gallons of milk that are like $9 but if you return the glass jug you get like $5 back
It still is in some parts of the US. I think Oberweis in Northern IL/IN offers this and I remember a friend from around Indianapolis saying that when he lived there from like 2010-2018 they had a milkman. Where I live in Illinois I have access to glass bottle cow milk, juice, and cold brew, but I don’t drink dairy or juice and only buy the cold brew on occasion so it doesn’t do much for me. If they had oat milk in a glass bottle I would gladly buy it though.
Australia here - and it isn't possible.
It might be technically possible if you are prepared to shop at a lot of specialist outlets and use a great deal of petrol in the process, but even then I have serious doubts, plus it would be a solid part-time job to do so.
I am pretty concerned at the way more and more things are being more and more tightly entombed in plastic, even though consumers don't actually want that to happen.
The only place this is really doable for me is at my local coop because they have a lot of stuff loose that you can buy in weight. I’m not a huge fan of the local coop though. It’s very expensive, even for a coop, despite there being other locally owned grocers right next to them that charge less, and the people that work there will follow anyone around the store they feel does not fit into the stores typically aesthetic. My wife has said that the store gives her a real “Get Out” vibe any time she’s gone in there without me.