Zero Waste Market Kit

Tags: Zero Waste

Here's my zero waste market kit and I love it!

I use an insulated market basket* with the soft cover and before I leave to go grocery shopping, I make sure it's filled with glass jars for the bulk bins, grocery bags, coupons from my co-op, and a wax crayon to mark my glass jars with PLU numbers. I put my market basket in the shopping cart and pull things out as needed. When groceries are being bagged, I make sure that the frozen/cold items go in the insulated market basket.

Here are a couple of storage ideas for produce bags:

For both of these options, you can just pull produce bags out of the top as you need them, making it very convenient. Also for convenience sake, I use grocery bags that also fit in a stuff sack. I like the bags that have shoulder straps; I can carry more bags into the house that way and still have my hands free to unlock the door.

For the bulk bins I use glass canning jars: 24 oz jars for most bulk items and 4 oz jars for spices and small quantities. I use a wax crayon to write the PLU and tare weight on the jar lid.

I use a lid with nothing pre-printed on it, so I have more room to write. With this special lid, the tare weight of the 24 oz jar is 0.90 lbs. With the original lid, it is 0.88 lbs. The tare weight for my 4 oz jar is 0.31 lbs. Some grocery stores can't subtract the high tare weights of glass jars, so always check first.

* Use this market basket for more than just the grocery store. Use it as a cooler for camping or picnics. Use it for potlucks. Use if for non-food purposes like transporting items that need some protection and the stability of a flat-bottomed container.

Sources: Bea Johnson is the originator of the washable crayon idea. For the produce bags in the glass jar, I got that idea from seeing another blogger use this idea for handkerchiefs.