What can you do?

• Challenge yourself at the market to find ways to reduce your single-use plastic purchases. This can be fun!

• Talk and write letters to your market managers making suggestions on how they can reduce single-use plastic. (See our Advocacy section of the McSisters blog).

• Purchase mesh bags for your produce and keep them in your car. These can be purchased in many stores or online. Take them with you when you travel. (See our Products and References page for ideas).

• Purchase refill products or concentrates for your household cleaning products.  Not only is it better for the environment but it takes up so much less space.

How do you grocery shop without single-use plastic bags and avoid other single-use plastics?   This is a question we are often asked.  This is a work in progress, for all of us, not just the McSisters.  There is so much more to do, but here are some things we are doing that you can try to avoid single-use plastic at the grocery store.

• We like to use mesh bags to bag our produce instead of using the plastic produce bags that are always available.  Mesh bags are great because they come in a variety of sizes, can be thrown in the wash, and used repeatedly.  Because of shopping this way, we have made adjustments in what we eat, where, and how we shop and we find we eat more seasonal vegetables.

• Shopping from bulk bins saves on excess packaging. We use paper bags for bulk items and then transfer them to our own containers at home. Mason jars from the old days work great.  Many grocery stores will weigh containers before filling, so there is no charge for the weight of the container.  

• When purchasing from the butcher section of your local market, we ask to have meat wrapped in paper and then we transfer it to a reusable container at home. 

• Look for products sold in glass or paper packaging.  

• Buy your bubbly water in cans.