3 Top Tips To Make Your Grocery Shopping More Sustainable

Changing your shopping habits is an easy step toward sustainability. A more sustainable lifestyle is a worthy endeavor that we should all pursue; it means we’re more conscious of the planet and willing do our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and put an elongated timer on climate change.

You may already know how to make your wardrobe more sustainable with some key fashion shopping tips - but what about your weekly grocery shop? It’s something you do all the time, so if you make it more sustainable, you’ll have an even bigger impact. Thankfully, it’s not hard to do this at all - you just need to make three simple changes to your grocery shopping habits.

1. Choose Local, Organic Food Products
It’s much better for the environment when you buy locally-produced foods from organic farms. Why? Because anything that’s not local or organic will have a much larger carbon footprint. Granted, it will be hard to buy everything you need under these categories but try your best. The next time you search for a grocery store near me, keep an eye out for places that either only sell organic food or sell a lot of organic/local products to help you shop sustainably.

 
2. Create Meal Plans To Avoid Food Waste
Food waste is one of the greatest concerns in the grocery shopping world. Too many of us are guilty of buying food and then wasting it because it goes off. Prevent this by drawing up some weekly meal plans before doing your grocery shop. Plan your meals around certain ingredients so you can buy items and use them all up. You’ll create less food waste, which is great for the environment, and you’ll also spend less money on food. It’s amazing how much you can save when you have meal plans with crossover ingredients.

 
3. Bring Your Own Bags & Packaging
Finally, try to reduce your plastic usage while shopping for groceries. Don’t use plastic bags - bring your own reusable bag every single time. It’s such a small thing to do, but if everyone did it then there’d be no need for single-use plastic bags anymore. Imagine how big of an impact that would have on the planet! The same approach applies to other forms of packaging. For instance, if you’re buying fresh produce, bring your own containers or bags to store your stuff in. This will stop you from using any smaller plastic food bags or containers, adding to your shop’s sustainability.

With just three simple steps, you’re well on your way to being more sustainable every week. Grocery shopping can be a massive cause of a huge carbon footprint, yet it’s so easy to bring down. You really should focus on the organic/local shopping tip, as it’ll help you buy things with a much smaller negative impact on the planet. Meal planning helps you get the most out of your produce and food items to reduce food waste while bringing your own bags/packaging can cut down on plastic usage and waste.

It’s not rocket science, so make these adjustments to your grocery shopping habits to become more sustainable today. 

This is a contributed post. 

Photo: Thomas Le on Unsplash