Green living happens in different shades for different people. Grocery shopping is a great example. Some grocery shopping steps are super mega green while others are mildly green. The best plan, if you’re new to green living, is to start small, taking green steps that are easy to manage. Eventually work in more and more green steps until your grocery shopping experience is as green as possible.
Mild green grocery shopping:
- Buy some reusable grocery bags and actually remember to take them to the store when you shop.
- Shop close to home so that you drive less, and combine trips on the same day if you have to hit two grocery stores.
- Plan some of the weeks meals at a time so that you limit take out.
- Choose three must have organic item and always buy it. For example, always buy organic milk, organic apples, and organic chicken.
- Never buy plastic water bottles.
Smarter green grocery shopping:
- Do all the above mild green steps and…
- Always buy everything on the dirty dozen list in organic form.
- Limit food waste to the max by making grocery and meal lists a week or two in advance.
- Buy some reusable produce bags to add to your shopping bag collection and use them.
- Avoid three single serve or overly packaged items you tend to buy on a regular basis. For example, ban juice boxes, individually wrapped slices of cheese, and snack sized cracker packs.
- Buy all food for kids under three years in organic form – little ones are more susceptible to pesticides than older kids and adults.
Hyper mega green grocery shopping:
- Do all the above mild and smarter green grocery steps plus…
- Carry a list with you that reminds you which foods you should always buy in organic form and refer to it before you choose food items.
- Buy some bulk food baggies and use them to get bulk food items that you normally buy in packaged form. By now you should have reusable grocery bags, reusable produce bags, and reusable bulk food bags which means you’ve successfully cut out disposable grocery bags (yay!).While you’re at it you may as well ban plastic snack baggies and use reusable snack bags too.
- Only buy food sold in recyclable or recycled packaging. Avoid plastic containers and look for the most minimal packaging possible.
- Create a solid list of green food criteria to follow so you have a game plan. It can help a lot to have a “should you buy it” green flowchart. It’s greener to buy less and only buy what you need.
- Look up the green policies of stores and food companies and only buy from ones that have green ethics.
Of course you can do all or only some of the above. The point is to work in some green steps at least, but make sure that they’re steps that actually work for your family.
How are you greening your shopping trips?
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