Grocery Bags!
This is a no-brainer and I am sure a lot of you reading this do it already- Which is- Taking your own bags for grocery shopping. Try to reuse whatever bags you already have before buying new ones. If you have to buy a new bag, check these out by Refresh bags! They have a multi-compartment grocery cloth bag and smaller bags to store vegetables in the referigerator
Pulses, Rice, Dry Fruits and Spices
One of the largest sources of plastics in my house is groceries- Eg. Packaged rice, pulses, dry fruits and spices. I had to find an easy way to replace these packaged items. I bought these useful pouches made of kora cotton, that can hold some weight. I have been using them to buy pulses, spices, dry fruits etc.
These cute pouches are from StoneSoup. They are made of kora cotton by women in rural Tamil Nadu. I ordered them from my BigBasket app, and received it with no plastic packaging. Win-Win!
Chekku/Ghani Cold Pressed Oils
Ghani/Chekku/cold pressed oils are amazing nutrition-wise, They have all the nutrients intact, aren’t chemically refined and aren’t stripped of their goodness. They can also be directly bought from a chekku/ghani in your local market. I love these stainless steel cans my mom had gifted(which I had thought would be utterly useless haha!) and use them to get oil from the chekku. They are a great alternative to packaged oils and is good for the body and the environment.
if you have any other suggestions or ideas sbout how to make your shopping experience, plastic-free and sustainable, then please write in the comments below. Share your stories with us and get featured in our website.