Getting set up for the challenge hasn’t been so difficult so far, it just required a little planning. My husband and I had to sit down and go over the list of foods we purchase each week and see how we could purchase the food in a way that would reduce our packaging. We had to consider our ridiculous use of paper towels, napkins and tissues as well as our lack of a compost bin. ( Picking up on Wednesday. . .) We also had to make some concessions. Some items we just weren’t ready to part with such as our kid’s apple juice, a small amount of their snacks (like yogurt) and the mostly recyclable packing that comes with our Sun Basket delivery every week which we have grown to love. Still we were able to make quite a few changes before the official start date. Here is a recap:
- Coffee = took our own container to the local coffee shop and they filled it up for us! We also got a free cup of coffee for buying a pound. WIN!
- Bread = Brought our own reusable bag to the local bakery and they sliced the bread and put it right in our bag.
- Deli Meats = brought our own tupperware to the Stop N Shop and they filled them up with our selections and stickered up our tupperware. We also got props from the deli guy for doing the challenge. Thanks Stop N Shop!
- Produce = As we picked out our fruits and vegetables we just put them right into a reusable bag. No intermediate plastic bag required. We got some snarky looks from the checkout gal but who cares.
- Paper Napkins – Called up Grandma who works at a linen company and asked her to send cloth napkins :). Thanks Grandma.
- Paper Towels – will be replaced with cut up T-Shirts. Husband works at T-shirt shop and the amount of brand new un worn t-shirts in our home is insane.
Compost bin will be here on Wednesday so that will take care of organic food waste. The rest we’ll just recycle or put to waste. I look forward to sharing our experiences as we go along.