ZERO WASTE CHALLENGE PART I: The Beginning - Groceries

There are many Zero Waste Challenges- one for each life category: entertainment, community, gardening, home cleaning, clothing, DIY-ing, health/beauty products... It is quite overwhelming when all clumped together. Although I do want to eventually touch all those areas to bleed things like consumerism, materialism and waste out of my life and my family's life, I need to start with one area: grocery shopping.

The Zero Waste Challenge a it is associated with grocery or food shopping is this: that you try not to buy anything in packaging at all, and in the case you must, every bit f the packaging (be it cardboard, plastic or whatnot) must be reusable or recyclable to the end game that your family's garbage ( ny waste that would go in your garbage can like items that can't be recycled) per week fit into one 12 ounce canning glass jar.

Yep, so I will bringing glass jars, produce bags and my own other bags/containers for all my food at the grocery store and what I can't buy without packaging, I will need to make- and pray that the elements for that food item are within reach at the store and not packaged as well.

So as a starting point, here are pictures of my cupboards as a type of before shot:

And here is what I am striving for:

And here is my new garbage can for the week:

The idea with this area of Zero Waste Challenge is to refuse, recycle, reuse and reduce where reducing the item should be the last resort because it insinuates some waste that can't be recycled or reused. The fringe benefits are pretty cool- that I will get to learn a lot about cooking and baking foods I otherwise would just take off the shelf, that I will eat a ton healthier, that I will spend less at the store and other great side benefits. I remember as a kid I looked forward to lunchables, cheetos, soda, fruit snacks, and frozen meals for fun- how cool would it be if my daughter grew up liking dried fruit, granola, fresh bread and homemade sausage lentil dishes? Let alone understood how to reduce polluting the environment with wrappers and cellophane.

There will be a lot of planning involved I think, at least a lot in the beginning- which is now.:-) So below is my game plan, my shopping list. I plan to tackle this at the Whole Foods store a half mile from where I live and take advantage of their "bring your jar / container" discount. I will go manned with my mason jars, pyrex glass containers and fabric bags. Here we go:

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