Hey, Green Junkie!

Have you ever thought about what kind of grocery shopper you are?

Maybe you’re the always prepared type who comes with your itemized list complete with prices and cash. Perhaps you’re armed with a generic list of the essentials but will definitely be grabbing those limited edition snacks that are practically begging to be purchased. Or maybe you’re a fly by the seat of your pants, a shopper who is notorious for shopping on an empty stomach and just grabbing whatever will get you through the next couple of days.

No matter what category you fall into, I can promise you that there is room to exercise your buying power and be a little more green with your grocery shopping.

You see, when we choose to be a little more green with our shopping habits, we actually save money and time, help support our communities and are heaping a healthy dose of love into Mother Earth.

I mean, what’s not to love, right?

Today’s podcast episode is all about green grocery shopping and how you can use your buying power to be a little more environmentally conscious.

What you can expect from this episode:

• What we need to take into consideration when we are buying our food and shopping at the grocery store
• 12 ways to reduce your impact and be more green while you’re grocery shopping
• How a solid plan can save money and the planet at the same time
• Clever ways to remember a reusable bag
• How to be less wasteful with our food
• How to creatively support local farmers and independent grocers in your community and why it’s so important to the environment
• Eat your way to a greener planet

You’ll discover that and so much more in this episode.

I’d also like to thank Nelson Naturals for supporting today’s episode. I am in love with their tooth tabs and other products and am so thankful for them supporting this podcast episode.

Want to grab some Nelson Naturals goodies? Go here and use code GREENJUNKIE to save 15% off your next purchase.

If you love this podcast be sure to leave a review and share a screenshot of this episode to your IG stories. Tag @greenjunkiepodcast so I can shout you out and publicly say thanks.

Thanks for listening and being here.

Your green bestie,

Xoxo Stephanie

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LISTEN BELOW

TRANSCRIPT FOR EPISODE 7

0:08 Hey, green junkie, I'm your host, Stephanie Moram. And today we are talking about grocery shopping. How can you reduce your waste and live a little more green while you're getting your groceries?

0:20 I think as consumers, we're starting to realize that our consumption choices matter, and that that mindless consumption hurts us all. I've personally changed the way that I shop for everything when it comes to groceries when it comes to clothing when it comes to the products that I'm bringing into my home. Because there are long-term impacts of our personal purchases and of my own purchases.

0:45 While grocery shopping is a necessity, it doesn't mean that we shouldn't take the planet and the environment into consideration when we are out buying our food. There are so many foods and products that we are personally buying at the grocery store that are impacting the environment. Fossil fuels are being burnt to transport these products to the stores, many of the products that we are buying are wrapped in plastic, and we want to reduce them as much plastic we can.

1:16 There's waste produced and created after we consume these products, and much of the products we are purchasing might contain some harmful ingredients. This is not even considering the impact of producing these products.

1:31 There are different ways that we can go grocery shopping and be green. So I'm going to talk to you about 12 ways that you can reduce your impact and 12 ways that you can shop a little more green and feel better when you are grocery shopping.

1:47 So my first tip for you is to plan ahead and consolidate your trips as much as possible. So what I mean by planning ahead is to write a list of what you need while you're grocery shopping. And try not to go grocery shopping when you're hungry because we all know that when you're hungry, and you go grocery shopping, you end up buying way more than you actually need.

2:11 So plan ahead, write that list, write down all the things that you actually need versus what you might need. Make a meal plan. I know it's not always always obvious to make a meal plan, I struggle myself with meal planning. But I do try to look at what's in my fridge. And I do try to when I go grocery shopping, to make sure I'm only buying what I need. So make that list before you go grocery shopping and stick to that list.

2:45 When I talk about consolidating your trips it's if you don't live super close to the grocery store, instead of going to the grocery store every day or every second day, grab that list and go get one big order and that way, you're reducing how many times you need to drive out to the store to get your food. And speaking of that list, maybe go paperless.

3:03 Instead of writing down everything that you need on a piece of paper, how about you put it in your phone, you can use notes on your phone and stuff like that, and then it just makes it easier.

3:14 Another way to go green while you're grocery shopping is a BYOB – bring your own bag. So that means bring your own grocery bag to pack your food up and also bring your own produce bag. I think people often forget that.

3:31 We buy a lot of fruits and vegetables and we often reach for that plastic bag right? We reach for the plastic bag to put our cucumbers in to put our carrots in and again that's another plastic bag that we are you know potentially adding to a landfill. So bring your own bag. I think that is one of the easiest ones is to bring your own bag.

3:55 A couple of tricks on how you can remember to bring your bag is to always have a bag in your purse – if you have a purse. Leave one in your car, leave some bags at your front door so when you are leaving the house, you remember to grab that plastic bag.

4:08 Number three – twist ties, I think they're less common. Now I don't tend to see them very often in grocery stores, but they are still there. So one way to reduce your waste is to ditch the twist ties. We don't need them, we really really don't need them. Just put your food in the bag – in the bag that you brought with you. If you do happen to have to grab a produce bag at the grocery store, ditch the twist tie and you can invest in some little clips of your own. You can buy some clips to close up your bag if you really really want to close your bag.

4:41 Next up, it kind of goes into my first tip about planning ahead. This tip is only to buy what you need. We create so much food waste as a society because we have these big plans of “Oh, I'm gonna buy five cucumbers I'm gonna buy 15 heads of lettuce” and yes, I'm totally exaggerating. But we have these plans for all this food that we're going to eat. And then it ends up going to waste, it ends up in the trash and ends up in the landfills, and it ends up in the compost.

5:11 Yes, we can compost our food, that's awesome. But it's still a waste, we're still wasting food at the end of the day. So by only buying what you need, it's gonna drastically reduce the amount of waste that you produce. So if you don't think you're going to eat that many cucumbers only buy four, and if for whatever reason, you buy too much food, and you don't want it to go to waste try this.

5:34 Ask friends and family, if they want those cucumbers, ask them if they want those carrots. If you bought an extra, I don't know something else, ask your friends and family would you like this because you know what, we're just not going to be able to eat it this week.

5:48 Number five, buy local and seasonal. So if you happen to have a farmers market or farms nearby, I highly recommend that that's where you get your food as much as possible. You want to support these local farmers and you want to get seasonal food. Because when you're buying seasonal food and local, there's less transportation involved. You're not getting your cucumber from the other end of the country, you're getting it right here where you live.

6:16 Number six, buying organic. When you buy organic, you know that you're not going to have conventional pesticides all over your food. You're supporting organic agriculture. And I'm going to touch on buying local organic because sometimes I buy local food that isn't organic. But I asked questions I asked how that food is produced. So organic isn't always 100% better. But you got to ask your farmers some questions.

6:42 How are they producing those cucumbers because the organic certification can be super expensive. So small local farms can't always afford to get that stamp of organic on their food. So ask questions. So if you're not buying organic reach for the local and seasonal food. Personally, I only get zucchinis during zucchini season. I don't get zucchinis outside of that because my zucchinis are coming all the way from Mexico. That is a long way for that zucchini to make it to my house over in Montreal, Canada. Strawberries, I generally only get those in season as well because when it's not seasonal, they're coming from California. That is really far from my house as well. And side note, most of the time my strawberries are white, and they don't taste that well because they're being transported for so far.

7:30 On the topic of local and organic, buy less meat. Tip number seven. Buy less meat. Did you know that raising livestock is an incredibly resource-intensive process? It amounts to a huge part of our carbon emission problems. So why not try embracing a more plant-based diet a veggie focus diet? I'm not saying you have to eliminate all meat from your diet but maybe planning meals that are centred around fruits and veggies will help make your grocery shopping less expensive because the meat is more expensive. It'll bring down your price and you'll be fuelling your body with bright vibrant colours.

8:11 Next up stop buying single-use disposable items. Yes, so many products at the grocery store are single-use if you really want a bag of chips yes the bag of chips it's a big bag it's still gonna end up in the trash but instead of buying that small bag, maybe buy the big bag and then separate it out when you get home. If you only want to have a small quantity ditch those single-use plastics as much as possible.

8:40 Because we're talking about single-use plastics, I wanted to say a big thank you to Nelson Naturals for sponsoring this episode. Nelson Naturals is the original Zero Waste toothpaste company based right here in Canada.

8:55 Nelson Naturals toothpaste comes in glass jars, yes glass jars. And you can get regular consistency toothpaste, you can get tooth tabs which are my absolute favourite. They call it crush and brush. You pop a tab in your mouth, you press it and then you brush. And lastly, they have powder toothpaste as well, which is similar to the tooth tabs. They wanted to find a way to remove single-use plastics from filling up and contaminating our landfills and oceans. their customers have helped them divert hundreds of 1000s of toothpaste tubes (say that 10 times fast) from landfills and the ocean.

9:36 Plastic-free is one of Nelson naturals main company goals and has been since they started in 2012. They're actively helping to divert millions of plastic tubes from our oceans and landfills. while simultaneously raising awareness of the negative impacts of single-use plastics. Their toothpaste has also left out any questionable toxic ingredients and uses only clean, great ingredients. I encourage you today to think outside of the tube and give Nelson Naturals a try today. Go to nelsonnaturals.com and use the code GREENJUNKIE for 15% off your order.

10:20 Number nine, stop buying plastic water bottles – that goes into tip eight where we're talking about stop buying single-use items. Try your best to drink the water that you have at home and ditch those plastic water bottles. Get a water filter, trust me your water is going to taste so much better, by drinking filtered water at home. Our landfills are filled with plastic water bottles, and they're not reusable, that plastic you cannot reuse over and over again. So it truly is single-use.

10:57 Number 10. Bulk buying and minimal packaging. We were talking earlier about ditching the single-use disposable items but how about ditching as much packaging as possible with this tip. Go to a refill station. So many grocery stores now have sections of their grocery store where you can get nuts and seeds and flour. And I'm trying to think of what I get at my grocery store rice, all sorts of things even I get my avocado oil, all things that you can bring your own jars to store your own bags and fill them up. And the best thing is you're not buying more than you need. Meaning if you only need a little bit of baking soda, then you bring your own jar with you and you buy a little bit of baking soda and you're not buying a huge bag of baking soda when you didn't actually need that much baking soda. Right?

11:48 So buying in bulk is going to reduce the amount of waste that is created because you're only buying what you need. And if you actually need more of something, you need so many nuts, we eat a lot of nuts and seeds in our house. So I have these huge mason jars that I fill with nuts and seeds. And I'm reducing the amount of packaging when I am doing this. When you buy in bulk, you're avoiding the packaging and all that pre-packaged food. So I really encourage you to look to see if there are any bulk stations near where you are. And many are much more than just-food. So we can save that topic for another day. But you can bulk buy shampoo, so many things, cleaning products, you name it.

12:32 Number 10 touching on the bulk store buying is brought back your containers if they take them back. So for example, I'm vegan, I don't eat any dairy but my family does. So I buy grass-fed milk, guess what it comes in a glass container, I bring back that glass bottle when it's done every time because the company raises it. I also get $2 back for doing it. So that's also an incentive. But when I buy that milk, they take $2 off of my order and then I get that $2 back so as much as you can bring back the jars that you get from these companies. Many will take them back. Inquire with different companies and ask “hey do you take back your jars.” Do you reuse your jars and if you end up having an abundance of jars use these jars to go to your bulk stations and buy the products that you need.

13:25 And lastly, grow your own food. You are going to reduce so much waste by growing your own food and it feels really really great to grow your own food. This year was the first time that I was really able to grow peppers and kale and tomatoes and tons of herbs and cucumbers. Side note my cucumbers didn't do as well but the other food did. I saved money by growing my own food I reduced my waste because there was no packaging involved. And anything that I had an excess of I gave to friends and family and so there was no waste.

13:57 So some of you you have maybe already introduced some of these tips into your grocery shopping – and I pat you on the back and I say thank you and the environment thanks you for all that you are doing.

14:08 So today, I encourage you to do one thing to live a little more green when it comes to your grocery shopping. And be sure to head over to @greenjunkiepodcast on Instagram and give me a follow.