Plastic Free Shopping –Update

This weekend I had a first real attempt at doing a grocery shop plastic free. Overall it was not a success-- Most products available even at the organic store still come packaged in plastic.--Deli does not allow own containers—However on a positive New Woolworth's “macro”  bags made from 100% Jute.

Firstly, I went to the organic bulk foods store, it was a 30 min drive from our home so I took a great big list of things to get to make the trip worthwhile. This store has bulk food bins and paper bags with items such as rice, pasta, muesli, nuts, and sweets. However I was quite shocked at the prices! On average everything was about 4 to 5 times more expensive than a regular supermarket.

I only walked out of the store with some small amounts (*less than 1 kg) of brown rice, quina, and about 200 g of pine nuts and some chocolate macadamia nuts and this cost me more than $70. I did take a tour around the rest of the store but everything else still seemed to be packaged in plastic. I didn’t buy any fruit or vegetables on the list simply due to cost.  The organic store is sadly just too expensive for me to be a viable option.

I went back to Woolworth's supermarket and Aldi close to home to do the rest of the shopping. Aldi was not too bad, but I did mostly buy canned goods and jams etc in tin or glass packaging. Only plastic items I got from Aldi was some organic wholemeal pasta spirals. Not a bad effort overall.

At Woolworth's the fruit and vegetable shopping was pretty good using my homemade fabric bags. The little bags were probably the most useful for zucchinis, tomatoes and carrots (and they did look quite cute in the bags) and the bigger ones for onions and potatoes. I will be making some more bags for sure. 

I had no luck at the deli with my own containers, it is not allowed due to food hygiene regulations so I ended up buying a bigger lot of stuff. I plan to freeze some of the bacon and ham in butcher paper and will see how that goes. I will use my plastic freezer bags for the chicken still until I figure out a way around this. 

I purchased some golden circle juice in the tin cans and some cans of Pepsi max to avoid plastic here. And where I could I opted for glass jars. But some items such as meat I still had no plastic free-alternatives (and I’m not sure this will be possible anyway at the supermarkets). I didn't buy any frozen vegetables this trip so no comment here. 

At the checkout I did have to take my fruit and vegetables out of the bags as I did not want to get charged for the extra weight. The checkout girl was really lovely so that was a bonus I got someone cool with the process. 

At the checkout I also noticed the new macro green bags. Finally green bags not made from plastic! The macro bags are made from 100% Jute, a strong natural plant fibre. They do look quite nice however I don’t remember the price of them but I’d say they are about $5. and are $1.99 each.

What I've learnt this week is to try to find alternatives to plastic using your own bags for produce, buying in bulk, and selecting products packaged in cardboard, glass or aluminium where possible.

Happy shopping!