Shrink Your Waste Line
There are so many ways to reduce our carbon footprint and save time and money at the same time. I always buy in bulk because I never know when I’ll be getting to the grocery store again. I didn’t realize this was a smart thing to do because it not only saves gas from frequent trips to the market but also reduces waste from packaging.
Is your household waste-line out of control?
The Bite
Understandable, since overpackaged products result in overstuffed landfills. Buy in bulk instead, and shed high waste and grocery costs.The Benefits
- Cash to pay for that new spandex unitard. Pay for the product instead of glitzy packaging. A bulk pound of organic oatmeal can cost less than a buck, while a packaged version retails for $9.
- Watching the inches (of waste) drop. Product packaging makes up half of all U.S. municipal solid waste by volume. (Believe it or not, more of your grocery money goes toward packaging than to the farmers who produce the food.)
- More time for sweatin’ to the oldies. Buying in bulk reduces the number of trips you need to make to the store.
- If 10,000 Biters reduce the packaging of the products they buy by half for just one day, we’ll avert the weight of 349 grocery shopping carts in waste.
- The average American family of four throws out $600 worth of unspoiled food each year.
Wanna Try?
- Buy larger packages. But beware of bulk items that are just small containers clumped together in more packaging.
- Buy from bulk bins.
- Just make sure you don’t overdo it. (See how long common foods typically last.)