Why Zero-Waste Grocery Shopping Matters _ One Small Step _ NowThis

Every time I buy food, I end up with mounds of packaging trash. Whether it's at the supermarket or ordering takeout, food shopping seems to be one of the most wasteful parts of my life. And apparently, I'm not the only one. According to the EPA, 23% of the trash that Americans are sending to landfill comes from containers and packaging. And a good portion of that is food packaging. Considering the average American creates 4.4 pounds of waste every day, that means we're using almost a pound of packaging every single day. If we were to change our habits and create less waste when we grocery shop, one person could prevent a significant amount of packaging from going to landfill every year. Luckily for us, the zero-waste grocery movement is helping us do just that. So, how do you grocery shop without creating trash? To find out, I visit a zero-waste grocery store, learn how to cook a zero-waste meal, and use some zero-waste grocery hacks at a regular grocery store. I'm Lucy Biggers, and this is One Small Step. I'm heading to PreCycle. It's a zero-waste and bulk grocery store in Brooklyn, and it was founded by Katerina Bogatireva, and she's been passionate about this low-waste, zero-waste lifestyle since she moved to the U.S. from Latvia. I do remember going to shop with my own container, and that was absolutely the norm. There was no plastic bags, and if there was, they were kind of viewed as fancy, and they were cherished in a way. Zero-waste grocery stores are better for the environment than regular grocery stores because there's no pre-packaged or pre-made foods, so you're saving on packaging and, specifically, plastic packaging. There's just so much media attention now around plastic pollution and, like, our oceans. Is that something that motivates you when you are creating the shop? Absolutely, yes. I think that maybe people think, it's just me, I'm going to make a small choice, but strength in numbers. You know, if it becomes part of norm, it becomes culture. We lived without disposable plastics before, and I think we need to unlearn some things. It doesn't have to be inconvenient. It's just switching the habit, and I think it's totally doable. We're going to have, also, liquids involved. Olive oil, vinegar, also honey and maple syrup. So you're thinking, also, when you're picking out what vendors to use, you're looking at the packaging that they're sending it to you. Absolutely. In fact, PreCycle is a product of more than three years of research and development. I think suppliers are a little bit upset with me because I talk to them all the time. Okay, you need to give me exactly how this product is going to be packaged. Some of them say that I've started conversations in their companies to rethink how industry works. So what type of packaging is better, in your opinion, than plastic? Ideally, it could be something that can be rotated. For example, for laundry detergent, it's a plastic bucket. But the good news is that they will take it back and send me new ones. So we're going to keep it in rotation. So I've asked Katarina to help me with a recipe that I can buy all the ingredients in her store. Now, what are we going to make? Winter Rainbow. It's going to involve some rice, some vegetables, sweet potatoes, some spices, and a little love. So basically, the key to buying in bulk and not creating waste is you bring your own containers. Okay, I know that's a plastic container, but it's reusable. And I'm a firm believer you don't need beautiful mason jars to go use the bulk bin. So bring whatever containers you have at home. And you can do this. Back to the video. I actually just brought this Tupperware from home that I already had. And we're going to put rice inside of this. The first step is you want to know how much your container weighs. So I just put my container on there. I'm just going to write .066 on my container, so now I always know, and they'll always know how much it is. And when I'm checking out, I'll show you how this weight comes back into play. So I'm just going to do jasmine rice. Now for some pine nuts, lime. And there are stickers on this, but why is that? It's unfortunately I cannot get them without stickers. I'm working on it. That's next. Those little stickers are called PLU stickers, which stands for Price Lookup. The number on the code is standardized to make shipping and checkout easier. If you really want to avoid PLU stickers, one option is buying directly from a farmer at a farmer's market. Some sticker-free garlic. Three sweet potatoes. This is char. And we're in a situation again where we've got a little sticker, but that's kind of just the nature of the beast. So the recipe calls for some spices, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and olive oil. But I already have those things at home, so I'm not going to buy them new right now. But if I wanted to, Katerina does have all these spices in bulk. I could get one of these little jars or I could bring a jar from home and I could fill it up with these spices and I could buy spice in bulk. Okay, so now it's time to check out my rice. The weight of my rice in container was 0.51 pounds and she subtracted the weight of the container, 0.066 pounds. So I got charged for 0.444 pounds worth of rice. And so my whole total for all of that food, and it's so delicious and fresh, is $11. According to the Food Marketing Institute, 8% of the price of our food comes from the price of packaging. So no packaging, no price hike. Now it's time for me to cook. I'm definitely not a good cook, but Katerina's giving me some good instructions and hopefully I won't mess it up. Rice is in. I think I boil it. I don't know what I'm doing. So because I'm trying to make the zero waste, these are the little scraps from my meal that I'm gonna be composting at the end. It's done. I feel so proud. I never cooked this much. I feel like I really got connected to the food. The only waste that I made was the little fruit sticker and this little wrapper from the chard. And I used tinfoil, which I recycled. I need to do things like this a lot more because it feels great eating this meal right now. I feel very accomplished. And I was able to pack lunch for tomorrow, so I'm really getting my money's worth. So I know that not everyone's gonna have access to a store like FreeCycle, so I'm gonna take what I learned from Katerina and I'm gonna apply it to a regular grocery store. Tip one, avoid unnecessary packaging by buying unwrapped produce. These are apples cut up in little tiny plastic packaging inside another piece of plastic. Bananas, apples, lemons, limes, avocados, they don't need to be in packaging. Tip two, bring your own produce bag. If you wanna put your produce in bags, bring reusable ones. There's a lot of options online that make this really easy. Tip three, find a bulk section and use it. A lot of grocery store chains have bulk sections. Whole Foods is one example. Bring your own containers and take advantage of it. Even if you cut down on your waste by just one or two items, that is a win in my book. Listen, I'm not saying all plastic packaging is bad. I understand that it's convenient. And for people with limited mobility, packaging can provide greater access to certain foods. The food packaging industry argues that food packaging prevents food waste. But Americans lead the world with the most plastic packaging waste per person and we lead the world with the most food waste per person. So all that packaging doesn't seem to be helping. Obviously, something is going seriously wrong for Americans at the grocery store. I think a lot of us just aren't conscious of the waste that we create. And so we gravitate toward the most convenient option, which is usually the most packaged option. From making this video, I've realized that as consumers, we have the power to vote with our dollar and support businesses that are creating less waste. If enough of us buy unpackaged food, then companies will create items with less packaging. So next time you're at the grocery store, use your power and take that one small step to create less waste. Thank you so much for watching this episode of One Small Step. I hope it inspired you to create less waste. And if you enjoyed it, please share it and we'll see you next time. Bye.