Madi is an eco-living writer, student and outdoor adventurer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has a website Green Foresters where she shares really helpful tips, fun DIY’s, and lots of resources on how to embrace the low waste lifestyle
It’s one thing to reduce waste when your options make it easy to, but Madi has figured out a lot of ways in which we can while working with what we have (such as, did you know that you can request to have your Amazon purchases shipped plastic free?!)
Below she shares some of her easy ways to reduce waste if you’re shopping at a typical box grocery store.
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“People frequently ask me for tips to reduce waste while living in an area with no bulk store or farmers market. Over my summers, I work at Wildman Resort which is in the lovely Northwoods of Wisconsin. There is no fancy grocery store, basically just a Walmart where we buy all of our groceries. No, I’m not able to buy my food in all reusable containers and that’s fine! You can only do what your lifestyle allows you to do. So here are my tips to buying low waste with no fancy options:
– Bring your own tote and produce bags to transport everything. Doing just this will eliminate all the plastic that would have been used with bags!
– Buy as much produce that is unpackaged as possible. This includes apples in bags, oranges in mesh, carrots and a bag, etc. Try to buy your produce completely bare!
– Look for glass containers. Pasta sauce, peanut butter, pesto, olives – these are items that have plastic options but I would opt for the glass containers instead. Glass is reusable and more efficient to recycle than plastic.
– Look for cardboard containers with no or small plastic peepholes – oatmeal, pasta, crackers. Try to buy products that are loose in cardboard instead of in a plastic bag. You can easily recycle the cardboard.
– Try to recycle as much as possible. All packaging, whether it’s plastic or glass, is waste if thrown away. If you can recycle it, make that effort. It makes a huge difference. So many products are recyclable. I understand there are areas that don’t offer recycling. In this case, try to buy products in packaging your can reuse. Glass jars can be reused. Cardboard containers can be saved for firestarters.
– Buy nonperishables in large packages. If you are buying in packaging, try to buy the biggest option if that means buying less packaging. But make sure it won’t go bad in the time you will use that amount of food.
– Compost your scraps. Composting can cut your total waste down by 30%! If you don’t have compost at home, there’s many parks, schools, and companies that have community drop offs.
