The best things come unpackaged

But I appear to have a shelf full of lentils!!

Wow! Where did October go?  And most of the first week of November?  I had a vision at the start of my packaging challenge this month that I'd have completely revolutionized my shopping habits and radically reorganized my kitchen for stream-lined, packaging free domestic bliss.  No more cloth shopping bags loitering behind a paint splattered apron begging to be taken to the shops...a nice stash of neatly stored and labelled recepticals ready to be refilled with tasty, ethical treats...a freezer brimming with delicious dishes to tempt me away from take-aways...etc.

Ahem..not quite there yet! Sleepless nights have taken their toll a bit, as has unpacking a large portion of our possessions following major building works (seems to be taking infinitely longer than packing up). But I've promised I won't beat myself up about things I haven't done.  So I'll focus on what I habits I have changed and what new things I discovered whilst encouraging myself to think a bit too much about tuppaware this month!

I did take myself on a little field trip to Unpackaged, an ingenious shop selling...you've guessed it...all things unpackaged.  I had cabin fever one day last week.  I found myself unable to get anything constructive done at home whilst simultaneously entertaining little L, and so, having no other urgent errands to run, I decided to entertain us both with a little excursion there.  I did need a few groceries so dutifully took along my motly selection of plastic and cloth bags, and my newly acquired wine bottle (they do English, organic wine refills!) but, mainly, I was hoping for an 'ah-ha - that's how to make this easy' moment, a magic bullet for packaging free shopping.

Lovely shop and lovely products.  You can refill everything from mustard to Montezumas hot chocolate (oh yes).  They've really done their homework and found organic and fair trade sources for many of their product lines. It's a great idea.  They're planning to have a cafe and sell cooked meals for people to take home when they move to a new site in Hackney soon.  It will be bit like popping round to a friend's for tea and being sent home with some left overs! Brilliant idea.  No magic bullet though, in terms of how to get organised around refilling. They sell a range of plastic and glass containers for refilling, but the friendly shop assistant suggested that, whilst they will happily refill whatever containers you bring, most people bring old plastic bags they've picked up elsewhere, just as I had. Looks like I just need to figure out what works for me then!  

What I think will work is...

• Labelling stuff!   No one except me (and to be frank not even me half the time) knows what recepticals we have ready to refilled.  I've generally got a few bags for fruit and veg.  Some for dry goods. Sometimes some laundry or washing-up liquid bottles.  It needs to be much more obvious what's going on.  I'm thinking small zippy bags to store plastic bags for refilling  that can be grabbed easily to take to the shops. And labelling bottles so they don't get thrown away. Might get myself some of these.

• Portable plastic containers. I'm going to get just a few that are the same size as my storage jars at home.  I'll take these to the shops to refill with dry goods.  Taking the right size containers will mean I don't get remnants of stuff in plastic bags floating around the cupboards because they don't fit in my jars at home. It would be even better if shops had measured scoops (how's about it Unpackaged if you're reading?). I'll probably have to take a plastic bag too so stuff can be weighed.

• More small freezer containers (sorry Martin - he's got some wierd thing against having too many plastic containers, probably a result of the frequent tuppaware avalanches we had a problem with at one point when our cupboards were particularly disorganised) so we can keep the freezer topped up. (Queue procrastination as I ponder whether to grab some cheapie tubs from my local plastic tat shop or spend a small fortune on freezable glassware that isn't, like most plastic, full of some 'nasty' chemicals that are suspected of messing with our hormones.) 

• More stylish storage jars - once they are on show on the shelf, I spot when we're running low on something, and they somehow beg to be filled. I find that if I'm well stocked with decent ingredients I buy less overpackaged crap on impulse.

• And...buying stuff with packaging sometimes!  

I won't crack this overnight, but my bin certainly seemed a bit lighter the last week or two so I feel I've taken a step in the right direction.

And the elephant in the room?  Plastic bags from supermarket deliveries!  I've been watching out for my worst packaging habits this month.  These plastic bags are definitely top of the list.

Grocery delivery services are great for busy people (check), people with kids (check), people without cars (check), people who have better things to do with their time than pace supermarkets aisles doing mental arithmetic to figure out which toilet roll is the best deal (check)...oh wait... pretty much everybody.  I'm pretty good at popping into local shops for a spot of bag free shopping while I'm on maternity leave. I spend much more time close to home, am much less hurried on the nursery run and, as much as the children allow, set my own schedule for the day.  When I return to work things will be a bit more hectic. Deliveries are definitely the way forward.

But supermarkets' ridiculously excessive use of plastic bags completely dwarfs any attempts I make to remember my own bag when going to local shops.  It reeeally riles me when they put a bar of chocolate (alright maybe two) in a bag all on it's lonesome.  I don't like my chocolate with added guilt.  I could go on...but plenty of others have before me so I won't.  And let's face it there's not much more to say than SORT IT OUT!   I hope the Break the Bag Habit campaign works where previous media campaigns have failed. 

So, until the supermarkets sort their act out what am I going to do?   Deliveries stay.  But I'll be looking for bag free delivery or only using deliveries to bulk buy heavy or big stuff that's hard to get without a car.

It's been a slightly frustrating month over all.  I haven't made as much of a change as I'd have liked and this niggles me because I know that, relative to most people, I've got great facilities on my door step (and OK, I'll admit it, I'm probably thinking about all this stuff a little bit more than most sane people). Most people are busy and aren't going to go searching far for packaging free stuff, even if excess packaging pisses them off everytime they're at the check-out (either online or in person).  There's got to be an easier way.  It needs to be normal, not cause a kerfuffle at the checkout as the cashier is flummoxed by the bag you brought from home.  

What would it take to make you start refilling and go packaging free?  What would be at the top of your packaging free shopping list (aside from posh hot chocolate!)?  Would you go as far as taking your own tub to the deli counter or the butchers?

Bonus discovery of the month?  On my 'field trip' I came across a beautiful, treasure trove of a shop nearby - full of all sorts of pretty things, lovingly made from...er...old stuff.  Definitely popping in there for a spot of eco-friendly Christmas shopping next time I'm refilling.  

Right.  Time to stop rabbiting on about packaging...until I pluck up the courage to do a proper zero waste challenge month! More sleep and preparation required before that I think!

Comments

[Liz]

As an intermediate step, how about more things (like lentils, for example) being sold in paper bags? Is that better than plastic, or am I missing the point?

I like my laundry liquid and washing up liquid refills, but it irks me that the shop doing the refills charges considerably more than the supermarket charges for a new bottle of liquid...so when you're counting the pennies it becomes harder to do the right thing. Of course the independent, local shop doing refills doesn't have the buying power of supermarkets...

[Jenny Thatcher]

Fiona have you ever had a wholefood delivery from somewhere like www.lembas.co.uk?
One of my maternity leave plans (I go back to work tomorrow - oops!) was to set up a little food buying co-op locally to get monthly deliveries of bulky staples - ethical companies, loads of organic things, minimal packaging, electric delivery vans and nice people! I agree about the supermarket delivery bags - so frustrating. Sainsburys do take them back to recycle but even so...

[Fiona]

Hi Liz, I guess paper bags might work - we use them for flour don't we. Would be a bit better than so much plastic. Completely agree about the prices, really tricky for small local shops to compete. And I'm sure supermarkets would say anything out of the ordinary adds costs. Very rare to find refilling is the cheaper option these days. Some mainstream coffee brands are having a bit of a go, albeit putting there jar refills in plastic bags!

[Fiona]

Hi Jenny, good luck at work tomorrow! I've got a far too long to do list for whilst I'm on maternity leave, given that I'm on leave to cope with the whirlwind of having a baby and all that! Lembas looks great - we're generally a bit tight on storage space so don't buy much stuff in bulk but sharing with others could work. Sure I've seen some notices about something like this somewhere locally, just before I had to chase after little M to keep her out of trouble no doubt!