Good Things Come in "Less" Packages

I don't know if you want to call it a rule, commandment, a suggestion or just plain ol common sense, but part of  living a sustainable lifestyle is not only recycling and reusing, it's buying less. It's buying less "stuff" that you don't need (ahem..I'll make an exception for shoes, I'm just sayin') but also buying stuff with less packaging.

For instance, frozen meals. While I've never been a huge fan of frozen dinners, I would buy a few just to have on hand if I needed to grab something quick at the last minute. Besides being heavily processed and full of sodium, I've discovered that the box it comes in is not recyclabe, at least in my area it's not. I was really surprised to know that the waxy boxes that these dinners come in were a no-no in the bin. I've thrown quite a few of them in there over the years.

Apparently the "overpackaging" of food seems to have started a few decades ago. As both parents working in the family became the norm, convenience started becoming more important.  Higher living standards meant that more people wanted exotic foods from around the globe which meant more packaging not only to hold the food but allow it to be shipped great distances.  Some families were having less children and the prevalance of more singles setting up households meant the they wanted things packaged in smaller portions, therefore more packaging. Of course more people live in urban areas now, so we are further away from our rural source of food and now it takes more packaging to pack and ship to grocery stores. A lot more households have large refrigerators and freezers to hold more convenience foods. I agree that some packaging is necessary, By law you have to have ingredient lists, nutrition information and foods need to be kept sanitary and to maintain freshness. And of course, the prevailing wisdom is that packaged/convenience food is heavily processed and not good for you. But the solution to this is to buy more fresh foods.

One of my goals is to start buying more fresh, local foods. I do like to go the the farmer's market and there is a place in my neighborhood that has opened up a "store" that sells local food throughout the year. I want to start buying more from these places. I can use my cloth and reusable bags and eliminate most packaging.I guess I might feel a little self concious bringing a bunch of plastic bags to my regular supermarket, but I might bite the bullet and give it a try. (gulp) I wish my supermarket had bulk bins then I wouldn't feel as strange about bringing my own containers because I have seen people do that in other stores. I'm not going to say that I won't ever buy any convenience foods or other items with lots of packaging, but this process is small steps and hopefully I will get better at it as I go along.

Kathy

p.s. my struggle with paper  towels continues........