10 Steps for a 'Zero Waste' Shopping Routine

“Zero waste” is a lifestyle that embraces minimalism; rejects the ubiquitous disposable items that are everywhere in our society; challenges mainstream consumerism; and encourages people to come up with alternative reusable solutions to everyday life. In the context of the articles I write, “waste” refers to municipal solid waste (MSW) – the kind of trash that gets hauled to landfills. This includes recycling.

Food provides sustenance, but unfortunately it also generates trash, especially if the majority of food comes from a grocery store. While packaging is helpful and often necessary for keeping food fresh, uncontaminated, and easy to transport, anyone wanting to reduce their household trash knows what a nightmare it is to come home with thin plastic produce bags that get thrown out as soon as fruit meets the fruit bowl.

It is possible to reduce your ‘shopping footprint,’ but it requires much more organization and forethought than conventional shopping. (You'll be surprised to realize how ingrained your shopping habits are.) Arrive at the store prepared, with the right equipment, and be ready to get some strange looks, but you’ll thank yourself for it when you get home.

1. Reuse Produce Bags

Buy reusable cotton produce bags and use them to buy fruits and vegetables. Always choose loose varieties. If you run out of bags, keep produce loose in the shopping cart.

2. Reuse Containers

Take large glass jars or other reusable containers to the store. Use these wherever an item needs to be weighed. The employee can tare the jar on the scale before filling with whatever cheese, olives, fish, sandwich meat, or deli products you want. Jars with screw-top lids are handy for wet foods.

3. Use Your Phone

Keep your phone handy in order to record container weights if you’re in a bulk food store. Weigh prior to filling, then refer to your list in order to record the accurate price.

4. Bring a Cloth Bag for Bread

Use a solid cloth bag to buy bread and dry bulk items. You can buy these online in various sizes, or use a small pillowcase. Bea Johnson of the Zero Waste Home blog and book recommends washable wax crayons for writing the product code on the bag.

5. Avoid Small, Wasteful Items

Avoid little things that usually end up in the trash, such as twist-ties, bread tags, plastic code stickers, receipts, and paper lists.

6. Use Your Own Bag to Carry Groceries

Use several large canvas tote bags or a sturdy bin with handles to take your food home. Never accept plastic grocery bags, even if you forget your totes. Author Madeleine Somerville of “All You Need Is Less” proposes the following solution to forgetfulness:

“Take your purchases without. The reason is that this experience will be so horrific, and so infuriating, and so utterly humiliating as you load your purchases one by one into the grocery cart with the entire line-up behind you watching in bemused confusion, that it will be forever burned into your psyche... and mark my words, you will remember your cloth bags.”

7. Always Keep Your Shopping Kit With You

Stash your shopping kit in the car after putting away the groceries so that you never find yourself in that situation, even when making spontaneous purchases. Put them on the front seat so you notice them when leaving the car. Keep a reusable bag in your purse, glove box, backpack or bicycle saddlebag.

8. Opt for Recyclable Packaging

If you must buy a pre-packaged item, always choose recyclable packaging made of glass, metal, or paper over lower-grade plastic packaging. Keep in mind that plastic is never truly recycled, but rather gets ‘downcycled’ into a lesser form of itself until eventually it ends up landfill; other materials, however, maintain their integrity through recycling. If you do end up using a plastic bag, rinse and reuse.

9. Avoid Products With Excess Packaging

Be prepared to refuse items based on packaging. This can be hard, especially if you’re craving whatever comes on a plastic-wrapped Styrofoam tray, but that whole packaging combo is a bad idea – and a whole lot of unnecessary trash in your house once that craving is satisfied.

10. Shop at Stores That Support These Practices

All of this is made easier by shopping at stores that support zero waste practices, i.e. bulk food stores that allow reusable containers. Usually smaller, privately owned, local companies are more flexible than chain stores. Seek out alternative sources of food, such as CSA (community-supported agriculture) shares for produce and grains.

Good luck!