Shopping green - packaging audit [Intermediate]

 When shopping, look at the packaging of the products you buy and try to increase the purchases of items that have recyclable/biodegradable packaging.  

This Monday, we did a lunch time grocery shop as a family.  

Wins: 

We brought and used our reusable plastic bags

We recycled extra reusable plastic bags in the plastic film recycling bin

Purchased largest available tubs of spinach which reduces the plastic recycling generated/serving

Purchased "big sheets" format of seaweed snack which has less packaging/serving and no little plastic trays.

Unwittingly purchased the bulk+thick yogurt which uses less plastic packaging than making it from scratch with bottled milk or single serving containers.  

Opted for bulk organic oatmeal and jelly beans using our mesh reusable bags rather than prepackaged servings

Further ways to reduce packaging: 

Reuse the packaging in the home several times before recycling (i.e. pizza kit is a humidity tray for seed starts, yogurt containers can be pots for seedlings, Talenti ice cream containers are now holding our diy yogurt experiments). 

Record what ends up uneaten/composted.  If we overbought an item and end up not eating it, that is doubly wasteful.  

Buy loose at farmer's market and use own reusable packaging: spinach, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, avocados, cucumbers

Grow at home: spinach/climate-appropriate greens equivalents, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, berries, avocados, cucumbers

Buy in bulk and "decant" into easy to use format: cheese tray

Make from scratch/swap to an alternative that is easy/fun/satisfying to make from scratch: mochi desserts, french fries, brioche hot dog buns, bread, pickles, pasta, pizza dough.     

 *There is an art to this.  There are days when making from scratch is a fun satisfying project, there are other days when the convenience of store-bought or its marked down price point are just too good to pass up.

Research ways to clean your home without toxic cleaners.  

Check out the findings of our household cleaners audit in February.  

Commit to using a product that you have found or you hae made for cleaning your home and laundry.

I cleaned several loads of laundry with soap nuts and continue to reach for vinegar as a surface cleaner.  I tried to grow helix/ivy as a soap nut alternative because my husband objected to the smell.  My transplants failed in the wine barrel I put them in, so I will need to go back to the propagation drawing board.