- Hey guys.
It's Candice, The Edgy Veg
and today I'm so excited to share with you guys
my 10 tips to making your grocery shop more sustainable.
(upbeat music)
All right guys, as you know
I've been making a lot of low waste, eco-friendly videos
and you guys are loving them,
but you had so many questions for me on the last video
and as I've been sharing them on Instagram.
How can you if you don't have access to a bulk store
or a low waste grocery,
how can you also make a big difference
when you are grocery shopping?
So, I wanted to share with you 10 easy ways to do that.
Number one is bring your own reusable grocery bags.
This is a no brainer.
It is 2019.
Europe has been doing this for decades.
Bring your own bags with you.
I guarantee you any event you go to
and a lot of stores now actually give you
those reusable totes instead of bags so save them,
or you can get the little ones that you can buy online
or at a health food store that kind of like roll up
into it's own pouch.
Take those to the grocery store.
Keep them in your car if you have to
so you always have them on hand and you don't forget them.
So much better than plastic bags,
we need to get rid of these plastic bags,
and a lot of places are banning them now
or charging you for them so bring your own.
It's a no brainer, it's easy.
It's like the biggest thing that you can do.
Hack number two is use reusable produce bags.
So these are mesh bags also called nut bags
that you can bring to the store
and put your produce into those instead of those
clear plastic bags that they have at the grocery store.
Use these instead and then you can reuse them
over and over and over again.
You can also use these items for bulk.
So if you do have a bulk section in your grocery store
for nut or seeds, that sort of thing, candy even,
you can use these bags instead
and then take them up to your cash
and they will weigh them there
and because the bags don't weigh anything,
you don't have to worry about bringing a mason jar
and then getting charged for the weight of the mason jar.
You can just use a produce bag.
They are so multi-purpose, I'm obsessed with them.
I love them and I know that you'll love them too.
Step number three is buy loose produce as much as possible.
Hopefully you have a section in your grocery store
where you don't have to buy those baby spinach
in plastic containers, like maybe there's an option
for you to buy the bundles of spinach
or buying a head of lettuce as opposed to
those ones in the plastic containers.
Also instead of buying bags of carrots for example,
buy loose carrots.
Tip number four is buy only what you need.
So the great thing about buying loose items,
so carrots for example, or celery, that sort of thing,
you can actually buy only the amounts that you need
which reduces waste.
By buying your nuts and seeds in the bulk section as well,
you are able to buy only the amount that you need
and then you aren't wasting as much food
when you don't use it up right away.
It's not going bad in your fridge
or sitting around in your pantry.
Another way that you can only buy what you need
is never go to the grocery store hungry
and always have a list with you.
I do not like to go into a grocery store without a list
because then I just start buying random things
and I get home and I have like, half the things
that I actually needed and a bunch of things
that I didn't need
so always have a list and never go hungry,
unless you buy a little snack along the way.
Maybe stop at like, the deli counter
and get some olives or something, I don't know,
maybe that'll help you get satiated,
but I cannot go grocery shopping hungry.
It's really bad news for me.
That's a good segway for number five,
which is when you are going to your deli counter,
so I'm vegan, so I never have to buy cold cuts or cheeses
or anything from the deli counter,
but my deli counter actually also sells pickled
and cured item, so whether it's pickles or kimchi or olives,
I like to bring my own containers.
You can bring mason jars because they weigh everything
behind the counter anyway
and then they can just stick that sticker on your mason jar
or your Stasher bag and you can take that
to the cash and then pay for it there.
If you are shopping at a grocery store
and love to go to the salad bar
or if you are let's say, working near a whole foods
and you love to hit up their salad bar on your lunch break,
bring your own containers with you.
Those containers, I do believe
that they are either biodegradable
and some of them are plastic
if you're going to a traditional grocery store,
but it's just unnecessary, so bring your own containers.
If you have plastic ones, then again,
they don't really weigh very much
so you don't have to worry about that at check out.
I mean, I try to buy glass containers now
for Tupperware only, but I still have a lot
of plastic Tupperware left over
from before I made the switch.
So I can use those until they I don't know fall apart,
have a hole, get a hole in them or melt in my dishwasher.
Step number seven is when buying baked goods,
try to buy them from the bakery section
of the grocery store.
So a lot of them have like, baskets of bread
or they're sold in bulk,
so then you can use your produce bag
and take your focaccia buns or your kaiser buns
and put them in there or take a loaf
of their freshly baked bread and put it in there,
instead of buying the stuff that's on the shelf
that's wrapped in plastic.
Step number eight is try to support
your local farmer's markets as much as possible.
I live in Toronto so there are farmer's markets everywhere,
but I used to live in the country
and every Sunday we had a farmer's market.
So my entire family would pile up in my moms car,
we would go to the farmer's market
and buy from our local farmers,
which is such a nice way to support and buy local
and also a lot of the times it's less expensive
and you can buy things loose,
so you don't have to you know, get packaged vegetables,
or breads or I don't know, condiments.
A lot of the time they sell condiments or fun things
or there's like artisans that sell their like,
hand-made soaps and candles, et cetera.
So it's a fun place to go with the family
and it helps reduce waste
while also supporting your local community.
Number nine, this many
is carpool and go grocery shopping with your friend.
So I don't have a car, but my friend Suz does,
that you guys love so much,
so we actually get together,
we load up all of our stuff,
all of our bulk items, our jars, our reusable bags,
our produce bags into the back of her car
and we drive up to our local co-op that we're members of
and we go grocery shopping together.
It's fun, you have a friend
and it you know, saves two trips or an Uber,
or however else you're getting to the grocery store.
I mean, unless you're walking,
but if you're carrying a lot of stuff,
like I always have a lot of stuff
because I'm constantly testing recipes
and filming videos for you guys,
so shopping with your friends is a fun way
to help reduce your carbon footprint as well.
Step number 10 is buy larger amounts of things,
so if you know that you're going to use something,
try to buy the larger container,
that way you are using less packaging in the long run.
So for me, I like to buy my dog food in bulk
and that way I'm not wasting a bunch of plastic packaging
over and over again.
If I buy the same dog food, but like 40 pounds lighter
than the bag that I have, it comes in the same size bag,
just there's less in it, so this way
I'm getting more dog food, I have to refill it less often,
which means I'm using less packaging.
So yeah, those are my 10 easy steps
that you can use when grocery shopping
at a normal traditional grocery store
if you don't have access to a bulk store or a co-op
or one of those low waste grocery stores in your area.
If you guys are using your own tips and I've missed them,
please leave them in the comment section below.
I love learning new ways
that you guys are being more eco-friendly
and eco-conscious so that I can be a better human as well.
Let me know if you love these eco-friendly kind of hacks
and tips and tricks by giving this video a big thumbs up
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Bye!