Packaging Waste When Grocery Shopping.
Reusable containers as pictured have become increasingly unusable as concerns regarding the Coronavirus have limited traditional restaurant and grocer shopping experiences.
Over the past several months, consumer habits, including habits relating to food shopping, have been altered considerably due to the pandemic. Grocery habits are now increasingly centered on delivery services and packaged goods such as take away services, leading to new risks and benefits environmentally.
As use of delivery services increase, environmentally concerned consumers must look to new challenges in limiting the impact of waste. Disposing of packaging and other vestiges of delivery services is now part of shopping routines. This can be seen in both food delivery and take away services, which since the coronavirus pandemic have resulted in a noticeable increase of consumer waste in both waterways and oceans, and in landfills.
However, there are ways waste from these new realities can be reduced. Regarding take away food, often packaged in styrofoam containers, finding a service or restaurant that provides food packaged in biodegradable cardboard or plastic is often possible. If such an option is not available, then take away could be further limited, using with bulk cooking that can reduce cost as well as time spent cooking.
When obtaining groceries from a delivery service, a similar problem materializes, where disposable packaging becomes difficult to avoid. One increasingly common method for both fulfilling needs and meeting environmental goals is the use of a local milk delivery service; milk delivery is often incorporated with related dairy products and general groceries. Confirming the presence of a service of this sort would prove convenient notwithstanding the state of the current pandemic.
Some delivery services, many of which operate on a subscription, some on an ad hoc basis, will provide more attention to environmental packaging, with use of reusable glass bottles, which can be returned to the dairy for indefinite recycling ( contrasting with disposable cartons ), papers, and so called “ bioplastics “ instead of the more common plastics and materials blamed for the recent increase in global waste.