ColumnAre you willing to shop package free?

If you’re reading this you probably bring your own reusable bags to the grocery store. Maybe you even wash out your plastic produce bags until they’re in tatters. But how far are you willing to go down the no-packaging road?

If the Brothers Lane in Austin, TX have their way, you’ll eschew packaging all together and buy everything in bulk. You’ll bring cloth bags or pre-weighed plastic or glass containers to In.gredients, the store they plan to open this fall in East Austin. You’ll refill wine bottles and lotion containers. You’ll not purchase anything that comes in a box or package.

Their plan is to nudge Austinites along the path to no packaging, gently, by opening a package-free, zero waste grocery store that offers compostable and reusable containers to those who haven’t quite picked up the habit of bringing their own.

Why is this important? We send 1.4 billion pounds of waste to landfills per day in the US. 40% of it comes from packaging—much of it very convenient, but entirely unnecessary.

Think about it. Does cereal have to come in a bag AND a box? No, the box just makes for easy transport and shelving and provides convenient space for advertising. Eggs, on the other hand, kind of need to be transported in egg cartons. Luckily they’re compostable. Unfortunately Austin doesn’t offer curbside composting to residential customers. The city picks up yard waste, but unless you’re a really crack home composter, you’re going to have trouble composting packaging. Throwing compostable packaging in the garbage doesn’t address the issue. Hopefully people will reuse any compostable packaging the store provides as many times as possible.

Taking into account the impossibility of going 100% waste free, opening a store like this is still a bold move. Customers will be asked to completely change the way they shop. Cleaning products, beer, wine, lotions, oils, and such will all come in bulk, as will things like yogurt, milk, and other dairy products. Think about the center of the store with its shelves of packaged foods. It will not exist. This means no “good” processed foods like canned tomatoes and beans that make cooking from scratch quicker and easier.

“It sounds intriguing, but as far as I can tell the number of people that bring their own bags to the market – even at the farmer’s market – isn’t incredibly high, so I am not sure about folks bringing their own containers, said Briana Stone, East Austin resident. “Targeting food deserts is an interesting idea, and reducing waste is definitely important, but I hope they figure out how to keep the prices reasonable and  make their concept work for busy, not wealthy families. I plan to check it out when it opens,” she added.

Christian Lane, one of the founders of the market, addressed the issue of pleasing and attracting a diverse clientele:

“We’re hoping that our location, on the border between one somewhat gentrified neighborhood, and other less affluent neighborhoods will be an advantage in reaching the people who want and in cases need to get away from over-processed foods (and junk foods) and cook from scratch. There are many Latino immigrants and children of immigrants (us included) who have never stopped cooking from scratch. Post recession, people of all incomes and backgrounds are realizing that we need to slow down and do what we can to achieve sustainability.”

The store will offer produce, grains and legumes, spices, tea and coffee, dried fruits and nuts, baking ingredients, oils, dairy, and beer and wine. There will be animal proteins offered in proportion within the product mix to reflect the expense and resource intensiveness of their production. The focus will be on local, organic, non-processed pant-based foods without artificial ingredients. Products that require packaging for food safety will be “package light,” and recyclable and compostable whenever possible.

“We want to reduce waste, but we also want to offer better food at a fair price to everyone, while supporting farmers and food producers in our community,” said Lane. “We’re hoping to be a spark of change and an anchor in the neighborhood for the people that want to come along with us and make some simple changes. This will require education and community involvement – a very collaborative effort – which is something we’re really excited about,” he said.

The store is set to open this fall in a just-announced location in East Austin. The group hasn’t secured enough funding yet, but they announced early in hopes that the originality of their concept would attract the necessary funding.

Time will tell how many customers will go whole hog in supporting the store’s efforts by bringing containers, beyond the now pervasive reusable shopping bags. But I have high hopes. Think what could happen if the idea spread to other stores in other areas and we also got our food waste under control. A girl can dream.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Images: BC Mom, Rubbermaid, Editor B, Boedker

It seems, the bigger the store, the bigger the carts. SuperTarget, which has introduced fresh grocery products into its offerings, keeps us in the red with enormous carts to contain the bulk items we buy. Box stores know you will also pick up little extras in the aisles along the way, like electronics and kitchen tools. You didn’t even know you needed towels and sneakers until you saw you saw the sale sign and could stuff them in with the toilet paper.

Conversely, Whole Foods and many health food groceries offer the two-tier basket trolleys – developed in the late 1930s – as the best utility for shopping for your fresh items without having to carry the weight.

There is a good argument for sticking to the baskets when you can. Sure, the restriction can be tough when shopping with a baby or child and needing that cart seat, preparing for a party or shopping just one day a week or after a lull and the cupboard is bare.

But on a regular basis, a basket will help you contain your needs, buying less and with with more purpose. Think of yourself at a large buffet and what you could get on a salad plate versus a China platter. Those being mindful of what they consume usually opt for the salad plates. The same principle could aid grocery shopping, as well. That is why some stores, like Shaw’s in Boston, rolled out a large basket on wheels as the ideal compromise for shoppers.

Here are some other benefits of keeping that cart parked at the entrance to the store:

Spending less money

According to the Get Rich Slowly blog, ditching the cart (and even basket at times) is the best policy when shopping with the intention of picking up a few items, a loaf of bread, a container of milk, some fruit and dog good. This way you can avoid impulse purchases and end up saving money on stuff you can live without.

Wasting less food

We’ve learned from food guru Michael Pollan that Americans waste half of their food from failing to buy for one meal at a time – the way our Depression-era grandparents budgeted. EcoSalon food columnist, Vannessa Barrington, also sings the praises of buying fresh and local organic over bulk and to eat what you need in a couple of days, not stocking up for weeks at a time. Even if you are composting, which is better than tossing scraps, you still waste less food by buying small amounts  – which is easier to do without a cart.

Avoiding cart accidents

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission finds some 24,000 children are injured in cart accidents every year, half from the seat in the cart, first introduced as a mother’s aid in 1954, and half from the cart itself (hands getting pinched, etc).  I equate cart driving to road driving, finding in my city by the bay that the bad drivers also are careless with carts, pushing them too fast around corners or hogging the lanes. When put at the helm, my 11-year-old tends to ram the cart into my feet, arguing “you aren’t supposed to stop when you are walking in front of me!!” Lesson: Leave the kids out of the seats, and only let them drive a basket.

Minimizing the waiting in long lines

It’s no coincidence that human cashiers are disappearing from discount grocery stores and replaced by self-check out stations – which we were first exposed to about seven years back. Not paying workers allows the corporations to reap as much profit as possible. Meantime, the lines continue to grow out of control, especially at box stores where carts are loaded up to the max. We pay a price for those discounts in the time we have to wait for service, and it is better to take charge of our consumerism by eliminating carts when possible. That way we can love rather than curse the store we have chosen when we are stuck in a big line and need to be somewhere else.

Images: J. Reed; Luanne BradleyWhole

It may have been published a couple of years ago, but Americans are now catching up to the message of Steve and Annette Economides and are eagerly plunking down their pennies for the hot home economics crash course.

The authors of America’s Cheapest Family have done remarkably well feeding their family of seven on just $350 per month, paying off their first house in nine years and purchasing a second, larger home, buying cars with cash, taking nice vacations, and yes, even socking away money in savings.

They’ve done so well, they are hitting the television news circuit including Inside Edition and receiving praised on numerous green websites to teach a fairly clueless nation the ABC’s of creating a comfortable, debt-free life. Forget the Joneses! It’s time to keep up with the Economides.

The couple, who live in Scottsdale, Arizona (a money-driven, rapidly built-up, energy-sucking environ), launched their popular bimonthly newsletter, The Home Economiser, in 2003 and have appeared in Good Housekeeping as well as on National Public Radio and Good Morning America.

Perhaps their message has been somewhat lost until the proverbial s–t hit the fan, sending many of us seeking advice from the successfully frugal among us, the ones who arrogantly yet wisely uttered I told you so as we maxed out our credit cards.

According to publishers marketing this new debtors’ bible:

“You don’t need to be a CPA or a math wizard to learn their revolutionary system, which will teach you:

- hundreds of ways to save money on everyday household expenses, including groceries, clothing, and health care
- how to save in advance for major purchases such as homes, cars, and vacations
- how to stop living paycheck to paycheck
- how to eliminate debt . . . forever!”

Oooh, that sounds good, real good to the masses choosing between lesser evils of selling their homes, getting night jobs that will take them away from their kids, and selling what they can from cars to gold and furniture – anything to stay afloat.

While the Economides’ disciplined road to penny pinching offers a way to avoid those evils, Nature Moms points out some of the methods may not sit well with the green among us, namely buying processed foods in bulk while forgoing more costly fresh fruits and veggies for the last two weeks of the month.

” I think families that eat lots of fresh, raw, whole foods would have a lot of adapting to do but the basic plan is a good one,” says the author of the site. “I would probably feel more comfortable doing bi-monthly shopping expeditions with weekly trips to farmers’ markets for fruits and veggies.”

One of the best chapters deals with clothes shopping and how buying stylish second-hand finds can help you stay within your budget and then some. And in terms of housing costs, they advise paying off your mortgage in less than 10 years.

For some of us the lessons have come a bit late, but not too late to try a new tack.

Images: Pink Sherbet, Amazon, Inside Edition