shopping, the reuzi way

Hi folks!

Let's talk about something we do quite often (loving it or not!): grocery shopping.

When I first started my #sustainableliving journey, I struggled with a lot of things around grocery shopping: How do I avoid plastic bags? How do I avoid non-reusable packaging? How could I optimise my trolley avoiding waste (of money and of produce)? Well, the list was long...

After a lot of research, I have been able to compile a bunch of real simple but good habits that can change the way we shop and I would like to share them with you today!

I truly hope you enjoy my suggestions :-)

SHOPPING BAGS

When out & about, bring your own reusable shopping bags. Is there anything worse than arriving home, unpacking your goods and realising that now you have a mountain of bags and plastic to deal with?

At reuzi, we offer my favourite shopping bags in the whole entire world: ECOBAGS! They are super light to be carried around, they expand to an enormous size and they are easy to clean. If you want to know more about our ecobags, click here. 

PRODUCE BAGS

We love produce bags made of natural fibers. Why natural fibers? Because synthetic materials shed tiny plastic fibers in the washing machine and, as you can imagine, these tiny bits and bobs of plastic end up in our rivers, lakes and oceans.

JARS, JARS & JARS

I collect all sorts of jars and bottles - jam jars, mustard jars, 'green juice' bottles, etc. I use them to prepare overnight oats, smoothies or simply to store leftovers. So simple yet so handy!

You can also use them at shops when buying products in bulk. Make sure the get the weight on these before you fill them up. At some stores, the staff will weigh them for you and mark the tare on them so you pay for the food only.

CONTAINERS

Bring your own containers for the deli, meat, cheese and ready-cooked food at the grocery store. The same goes for loose eggs and vegetables. I love glass and stainless steel containers as they are easy to clean and won't smell bad after a while. Plus, #plasticsucks right? 

FRESH IS KING

The idea here is to shop more frequently for less food & this is life changing, my friends!  

If you can do this, you will waste less food because you will have less perishable food on hand to go bad before you can eat it… and let’s be honest, it hurts to throw away a full bag of leaves or a beautiful aubergine just because you forgot to use it or simply didn’t have time to cook. 

I will be the first one to say that it takes proper discipline to stick to a shopping list but I can promise you that it will all be worth it! I used to find myself shopping for sauces, fancy biscuits and exotic stuff I would never use… a total #waster.

With a shopping list in hand, you will not only avoid all those plastic-wrapped impulse buys, you will also know just how many bags, jars and containers you will need to take with you shopping – not to mention save a few quid!

Well, that's it for today.

I hope you are ready to adopt some of these habits and contribute to a better planet!

Love,

Pat x