On the Ground with Grocery Stores Ditching Plastic

Lea Rainey knew that if all of the plastic encasing the meals she was shopping for on the grocery retailer was her pet peeve, different individuals have to be pissed off by it as nicely. “I may have continued to be a type of individuals who complained, wishing that ‘they’–corporations–would do one thing about it, or I may do one thing about it,” she says. In 2019, she opened Roots Zero Waste Market and Café in Backyard Metropolis, Idaho. The market is Rainey’s small resolution to an issue that has overwhelmed North America.

In 2024, Environmental Defence Canada printed Left Holding the Bag: A Survey of Plastic Packaging in Canada’s Grocery Stores. They discovered that over 70 p.c of merchandise within the produce and child meals aisle are encased in plastic. It’s not significantly better within the US. In 2019 Greenpeace USA assessed 20 grocery retailers with a big nationwide or regional presence. Not one of the retailers, in keeping with Greenpeace, appeared to have complete plans on methods to cut back plastic use.

And whereas it’s true that customers increasingly report that utilizing much less plastic issues to them, statistics paint a distinct image. In 2020, over 242 million Individuals used bagged or packaged salads–a determine anticipated to have risen to 251.47 million in 2024. Salad bags are usually categorized as “plastic movie” they usually jam recycling equipment. They find yourself within the landfill the place they decompose releasing greenhouse gases into the environment.

Alongside the environmental issues, there are potential well being points. Rising research means that chemical substances used within the manufacture of plastic contribute to a mess of well being points. Consumer Reports examined practically 100 meals starting from dairy merchandise to canned items.They discovered that phthalates, a chemical used to make plastic versatile, had been in virtually all of them. Studies recommend that common publicity to phthalates can have an effect on reproductive well being and that older adults with phthalates of their our bodies had been extra more likely to undergo coronary heart illness.  

However, there’s hope. In April 2024, the European Parliament voted to approve new rules aimed toward decreasing plastic packaging. Beginning in 2030, bans shall be in place for packaging of unprocessed recent vegetables and fruit. Shoppers shall be inspired to carry their containers to eating places and cafés, which will even goal to supply 10 p.c of merchandise in reusable packaging. Since 2022,  Canada has banned the usage of single use plastic baggage at grocery store checkouts. And, within the US greater than a hundred municipalities and cities have banned polystyrene ( styrofoam) utilized in meals containers, together with Los Angeles and New York. Illinois has gone even additional. Legislation got here into impact in 2024, permitting eating places and retailers to fill or refill consumer-owned containers with ready-made or bulk meals. Nonetheless, plastic packaging persists. 

Presently, out of over 300,000 grocery stores within the U.S., which vary from expansive supermarkets to small specialty outlets, solely 1,300 zero-waste stores supply a plastic-free buying expertise.We spoke with just a few outlets across the nation to see how they ditched the plastic. 

Maison: pay for meals, not packaging

After visiting France and buying plastic-free, Larasita Vitoux was impressed to open Maison Jar Refillery and Grocery Store in Brooklyn.

“In Europe, there are such a lot of refilleries and shops with bulk aisles,” Vitoux says.   

Maison Jar sells bread, greens and dried items all freed from plastic overlaying. In line with the shop’s year-end impact report for 2023, they’re making a dent in plastic use. For instance: in 2023 Maison Jar bought 39,075 fluid ounces of kombucha–the equal of two,443 16 oz plastic bottles. 

One thing Vitoux believes may propel plastic free bulk buying into the mainstream market is the introduction of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws. An EPR shifts the accountability for managing supplies on the finish of life away from customers and onto producers who’re required to offer funding and/or companies that help in managing merchandise after the use section. To perform this, as Vitoux factors out, there will be an embedded value related to the packaged items that will get handed on to the patron. 

As a result of bulk shopping for eliminates packaging, bulk objects wouldn’t incur this carry over expense. 

“It could make bulk far more aggressive,” Vitoux says. As of January 2025 legislation to ascertain EPR’s in New York State, the place Maison Jar is,  had been launched.  

Re_grocery: direct from the farm 

After residing in San Francisco and having fun with bulk plastic-free buying on the metropolis’s iconic Rainbow Grocer, Joseph Macrino returned to Los Angeles in 2016. “ There weren’t any choices in L.A. like that,” he says. So, he created his personal. re_grocery’s first location opened in April 2020.

From the beginning, the shop was common; 5 years later re_grocery has expanded to a series of three shops. One in Studio Metropolis, one other in East L.A. and one in Venice. Carrying every little thing from cooking oils, quinoa, and natural greens, they work to maintain  costs as aggressive as standard grocers.

“A variety of it has to do with the majority nature of merchandise we’re buying,” Macrino explains. “For instance, we buy quinoa in 25lb baggage. We get it instantly from the farm after some processing and re-packing. It’s not going to a different co-packer, the place it’s getting damaged down into smaller packages. By avoiding that different intermediary – the co-packer,  we’re in a position to value bulk packages cheaper.” 

Clients at re_grocery weigh their containers once they arrive and obtain a laser chip that’s hooked up to the receptacle.When their items are weighed on the take a look at the laser tag is scanned and the container weight is subtracted. The client doesn’t pay any additional for the container.

Roots Zero Waste Market: on demand ordering

The argument for wrapping a cucumber or head of cabbage in plastic is to take care of shelf life and freshness longer. At Roots, Rainey applies a “just-in-time ordering coverage.” By ordering extra continuously – typically thrice per week and solely what she wants – meals stays recent. Roots promote eggs, milk, meat, and natural produce alongside bulk objects reminiscent of olive oil, spices and rice. “We consider what’s shifting on the ground seasonally and regulate to how individuals’s shopping for patterns are fluctuating on the time,” she says.

“We’re an environmental firm disguised as a retailer,” she says.  

Roots operates on a closed-loop enterprise mannequin that matches with Rainey’s setting consciousness, who’s adamant that recycling doesn’t work.

“There isn’t a such factor as recycling,” she says. Not solely do guidelines for what will be recycled fluctuate by state: a plastic strawberry container, as an example, could also be repurposed, however cling wrap will not be so fortunate. Items reminiscent of toothpaste containers, chip baggage, or juice packing containers are shaped with a number of layers of supplies making them onerous to interrupt down and recycle.  

“We by no means ship something to the landfill,” Rainey says. If, for instance, an apple will get bruised in produce, it’s taken to the deli the place it’s pressed into juice, with the  pulp repurposed for muffins and its core composted. 

 “We’re an environmental firm disguised as a retailer,” she says.