Everyone needs food to survive.
So if you're looking to reduce your environmental impact.
It makes sense to start with what you eat.
Where your food comes from,
how it's packaged, and where the waste ends up
are all important things to consider when tracking your carbon footprint.
Precycle is a package free grocery store in Brooklyn
that is empowering customers to buy food with the Earth in mind.
Join us as we visit the Brooklyn store and learn how it's sharing resources,
creating awareness and helping New Yorkers shop more sustainably
on this episode of The Green Apple.
My name is Hannah Loesch for A Plus,
and I'm here with founder and CEO of Precycle, Katerina.
Nice to meet you, Katerina.
Nice to meet you as well, Hannah.
I feel like a good place to start would be if you could just tell us the Precycle
origin story and how it differs from other grocery stores?
In 2015, I, my son was in kindergarten,
and one day he came from school and he asked me a question.
He said, “Mommy, do you know how long the plastic will remain in landfill?”
And in that moment, it sort of broke my heart and I realized
that we do have responsibility towards future generations.
I started think about, thinking about ways how I can reduce my own waste at home.
That inevitably led me to further
on realizing that there is a need for a store like Precycle.
So in 2018 we opened our doors.
For people who want to be more sustainable and shop more sustainably,
why is knowing where your food and other products come from important?
I think traceability is important
because every product goes through a stage before it ends up on your on your table.
So knowing that it doesn't travel too far, doesn't create too much emissions,
I think it's important.
Second of all,
I think it's important to know because the money stays in the community.
It benefits both the environment and the community.
Yes, and also yourself personally, because it's likely that
the product will be more fresh.
It will be more nutrient dense and just tasty.
As you'll see, there's lots of different ways
that we inspire people to change their habits
and just minor, minor tweaks to their lifestyle.
Chris, it's my first time here. Show me around.
Tell me how it all works here.
Let's start with the produce.
It's what you see when you walk in.
Everything's in bulk, so we have tongs for you to grab.
You're free to use your hands, but typically somebody will take a basket
and they'll start to put produce in the basket.
Some people aren't used to the bulk model,
so they aren’t necessarily comfortable putting stuff in the basket.
So we do have paper bags that people can put in, but people
also bring their own mesh bags, cotton bags, and we sell those as well.
You would grab what you need and all of that stuff gets weighed
when you check out.
We have eggs in bulk, which is really convenient
because we have the reusable cartons.
People can bring back their own cartons and use that just a tiny bit less waste.
And with all of these products, like our Kimchi Kombucha, it's all coming in glass.
And what's really special about Precycle
is that we only work with people who will take back these containers.
And so when a customer is finished with their kimchi at home,
they bring back the container,
they bring it to the store, we send it back to the to the vendor,
they wash it and reuse it, and then we reduce waste drastically.
We have some bulk oils.
We also have honey and maple syrup.
And so people will bring their own containers and fill those up as well.
Once again, it's another thing that's really hard to find.
Being able to refill oils and it’s a product that people go through
really quickly.
So there's another conversation about recycling to be
had because even though products like oil will come in glass,
the reality of recycling glass is a little bit more nuanced
and depressing, actually, than than what people imagine.
And so whenever you're able
to reuse a bottle as opposed to recycle it, it's always better.
So we want to encourage reuse.
And that's really baked into how we've structured the store here.
So now we're moving into our bulk section.
And so this is definitely the star of the show here.
These are lots of products
that are hard to find, you know, without plastic in stores.
And so particularly rice and staples in a pantry that people go through often.
So most people, when they come here, they are so happy to have like
jasmine rice and rolled oats and things that they always have in their house.
So they stock up on a big quantity.
We sell gallon jars here that people can fill up, but
people also bring even bigger containers and just have a massive stockpile,
which is great.
And then when they're done, they come back and they refill it and start the process all over.
We also show on all of our products, we have QR codes
that send people to websites that explain the origin of the product.
So we want to be a little bit more transparent about where we're sourcing.
Oh, that's very interesting. I love that.
And when it's possible, we're always trying to source
from domestically, from the United States.
There's a little bit of a learning curve with zero waste shopping
because some people just take more than they anticipate
or their eyes are bigger than their stomach.
We all do that at the grocery store.
Of course.
I mean, there's a lot of people
that come in and they they just want, you know, a tablespoon of beans or just
I mean, maybe that's a little–
Only here can you can do that.
But only here you can do that.
And it's really cool.
And so a zero waste store allows people to do that in a way
that they couldn’t elsewhere.
I think that's really special.
There we go.
So like Chris said, what's good about
this is if you need this much rice, you don't need to get this much.
What are your goals for the future of Precycle?
I'd like to get Precycle to a point where it's kind of a normal shop.
It's not some novelty or niche.
It's just available for everyone, everywhere.
And it doesn't have to be hard.
One shop at a time, right?
One shop at the time.