Many people have been asking us how we are doing with our challenge, and whether it's been difficult. I always tell people that we were very aware of our waste production, and were quite conscious about sorting our recyclables and compostables from our trash even before we began this challenge. We have found the biggest changes have come in our shopping habits.
Most of our shopping is in the form of groceries, so this is obviously where we have had to make the most change. Fortunately we already tried to eat mostly whole foods, but it's still amazing how much food comes in packaging that isn't recyclable. I'm going to try to go through a typical round of the grocery store for our family, and indicate how we've solved some of our problems.
Produce
Most produce you can get in bulk. By using the mesh produce bags I made, this eliminates most of the plastic from this area that's not recyclable in our region. However, there are still some challenges. In our grocery store, sometimes the loose, bulk produce is more expensive, or shipped in from other countries while the same item prepackaged is cheaper and/or Canadian. I find this most obvious with apples and potatoes. It's easy to get 5 or 10 pound bags of Canadian potatoes all year long, but loose Canadian potatoes are often only found in the late summer and into the fall. The loose ones are also more expensive per pound. In the summer I usually buy our potatoes from local farmers. Come winter I plan to purchase 10 pounds bags, as most of the bag is a compostable material. You just need to remove the plastic window, and then you can use it to wrap compostable material like you would newspaper.
In the summer and early fall I try to frequent farms close to our house. This helps to cut down on the excess packaging, as well as the kilometres our food has to travel. Come winter I miss my local produce!
Bakery
This is one area where we find ourselves forced to purchase items in plastic bags. Bread and tortilla shells are a staple in our house. I have baked some of my own bread this summer, but as I find myself having to return to work as well as being a mom to two active young children, this will not happen too often from here on out. Bread bags are a type of plastic that is recycled in other communities, and I hope that our region might some day follow suit.
Fresh Meat
This is the area where we have had to make some of the most change. Neither styrofoam nor plastic wrap are recyclable, so we no longer purchase meat at the grocery store. I go to a local butcher to purchase beef and pork. While they normally wrap their fresh cuts in butcher paper (which is compostable!) ground meats are usually packaged in plastic bags. I have found, however, that if I request the ground meats in butcher paper, they are happy to do it. Our chicken comes from a local poultry shop, and I purchase it in bulk quantities. It comes in a plastic bag, so another non recyclable piece, but much less than if I were to purchase a tray of 3-4 chicken breasts at the grocery store.
Dairy
Here is another place where we have not found a good solution. As I have lamented before, milk bags are not recyclable in our region. Milk cartons are twice as much money as bagged milk. I know that it is possible to purchase 4 litre jugs of milk for comparable cost to bagged, but unfortunately we do not have a store near to us that carries this. Our solution to this problem has been to reuse our milk bags as storage bags, and to seal them with reusable bag clips. These bags work well to store waffles that we make in bulk and freeze for quick, easy breakfast foods.
Cheese is also a pain in terms of packaging. My kids love cheese, and I'm happy to give it to them, as it's an easy snack and helps to boost their calcium intake. The packaging, however, does not seem to be recyclable in any municipal recycling program that I am aware of. This is one place where we find we have no choice but to produce garbage.
Frozen Foods
Our family does not purchase too many items in the frozen food section. Notable exceptions are waffles and frozen vegetable. We have stopped purchasing frozen waffles, and instead are making our own waffles and freezing them, as I stated above. As for vegetables, since we are in harvest season I have not had the need to purchase any frozen ones recently. We actually froze 17 dozen cobs of local corn a few weeks ago, so we won't be purchasing any frozen corn this winter! As for the other vegetables I would normally purchase, like cauliflower and broccoli for stir fry, I will just have to forgo the convenience of the frozen and use fresh all the time.
Other Items
I have read more than one comment from people that when you're shopping you should stick to the outside of the grocery store, as that's where the healthier, less processed food tends to be placed. Even without consciously doing so, we find that most of our shopping does happen around the outside. I would like to touch on the things we like to purchase from the aisles, and how we have made different choices as of late.
Cereal
Both Matt and our youngest child love cereal for breakfast. The outer boxboard is easily recyclable, but the inner bag poses a problem. I have discovered a company called Terracycle, which reuses and recycles hard to recycle materials, has a cereal bag recycling program. Since this discovery we have been collecting our cereal bags, and I hope to set up a collection station for more people to recycle their inner cereal bags too.
Baking Supplies
Not too difficult here. Both flour and white sugar come in paper bags which we use as liners for our small compost bin. Things which present more of a challenge are brown sugar and chocolate chips. Both of these I now try to purchase at a bulk food store. The store bags are not recyclable in our region, but I choose to put my purchases in rigid plastic containers they have for purchasing things like peanut butter and honey, which are recyclable here, but also easily reusable.
Oil and Sauces
This area is not a problem, as our olive oil comes in recyclable plastic containers, and our tomato sauce comes in Mason jars, which we reuse and fill with canning such as pickles, peaches or salsa. Most of our other condiments come in recyclable plastic containers, and some in glass. I mention the glass specifically because I am aware of an article that has just come out in The Record that talks about how glass is not being recycled. I will be honest and say that I haven't read this article yet, as I've had a stressful few days, and don't need to add any more stress right now! I also wanted to get this post finished before I get distracted with any other issues!
Crackers, Cookies & Chips...
This is the area of the grocery store that we now bypass completely. I used to purchase a box of crackers once every couple of weeks, and a bag of tortilla chips each week. Our kids also like arrowroot cookies, and we used to purchase those every couple of weeks. Now we bring none of this into the house. I love to bake, so store bought arrowroot cookies have been replaced by homemade oatmeal chocolate chip. We're beginning to miss crackers in our school lunches, and I do intend to try baking some, so if anyone has any recipes to share, I'd love to hear them. It's the tortilla chips that I miss the most, though. I tried to bake up some corn tortilla shells I had sitting in my freezer, but they just didn't cut it. If anyone has any tried and true recipes, I would really appreciate them!
Other Shopping
We haven't done much shopping besides groceries in the past few months. No one in our family has had birthdays, Christmas is still a few months off, and back to school shopping was limited to running shoes, a ruler and a calculator. New clothes have come out of the hand-me-down boxes we've been blessed with, and clothes that are too small have been put in boxes destined for other children. As a one income family we don't have much extra money outside of our standard monthly expenses, and recent circumstances which have forced me to find part time work mean that our budget is even tighter than ever. Perhaps that's the best way to make sure you don't buy something that's going to end up in the garbage...
