7 Ways to Shop More Sustainable

I thought I’d start with the most obvious. A plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to breakdown and that’s if the bag even makes it to landfill. Instead, a whopping 8 million metric tons of plastic ends up in the ocean every year so it wouldn’t be a surprise if the plastic bag made its way to the water.  

Taking your own bags to the shop and reusing them every week is one of the easiest ways to make your shopping trip more eco-friendly. But what if you always forget your bags? Leave a stash in your boot and pop them straight back in when you’ve unpacked your shopping. Once it becomes a habit you won’t even have to remind yourself to do it.

Zero-waste and refill stores are popping up everywhere and even the big supermarkets are taking baby steps into the zero-waste world.

Things like grains, cereals and pasta come in single-use plastic. And although popping to a nearby refill store with your own containers sounds like a great idea, it can be a bit of a struggle lugging a few kilograms of pasta and cereal back to the car. That’s where reusable linen bags step in. They don’t take up much space when you’re not using them, and you can decant your zero-waste goodies into your glass jars when you get home. Win-win!

You don’t need to be a super organised person to do this. All you need to do is jot down the amazing meals you want over the week. Open the cupboards and see what ingredients you’ve got, then everything you haven’t got makes it to the shopping list.

This is a great way to keep food costs down and reduce food wastage as you’re less likely to accidentally buy something you may already have three of in the cupboard!

Have you ever done a food shop without writing a list and bought so much food you didn’t even need? Oh, and you forgot some of the food you did need so before you know it you’ve made a special trip back to the shops to stock up! Yup, we’ve all done it. And to be fair, we’re only human so from time to time it’ll happen.

Buying less goes hand in hand with meal planning, so once you’ve written your weekly shopping list you’ll only need to buy exactly what you need.

You don’t have to go full on veggie here. But processed foods and meat take a lot more resources than growing fruit and vegetables, especially if those vegetables are grown organically.

Organic vegetables are grown without the use of nasty chemicals as farmers use nets to keep bugs from spoiling their crops. Try swapping out a couple of your items in your basket with the organic alternatives and see if you taste a difference!