My mission is to avoid single use packaging especially plastic as much as I possibly can. This helps me reduce my waste, so I have less to recycle and less to send to landfill.  I have not sent waste to landfill since 21st July, we have a few bits we keep in our waste jar! This can prove rather tricky, especially as we do not have the luxury of these beautiful bulk food stores I always seem to see pictures of … in England, Australia, the States, France etc. Sigh.

But I am determined to still do my best.  I have been to Food Lovers Market (Fruit & Veg City) a few times on previous occasions, and generally it has been rather frustrating as the staff won’t (only because they don’t know how) tare the jars or containers!

So I would inevitably have to fill one of my reusable bags (depending on the product), weigh it, and then tip it into my jar and seal. But with finer/smaller items this is more than tricky or impossible!

The ideal scenario would be to go to the till and have the staff weigh the jar, write the weight onto the jar, and then I could fill the jar with nuts/grains/spices/olives/cheese/oil etc and then weigh again – minus the weight of the jar.  Simple see?

The same goes for the meat, fish and cheese counters.  Instead of placing the product on a disposable piece of plastic on the scale, then placing into my reusable container and throwing the plastic away anyway;  just tare the container, then weigh.  All so simple.

The absolute best thing about shopping this way (aside from reducing waste obv), is that when I get home, I just place my jars in the cupboards and fridge.  I don’t have to worry about unpacking decanting, resealing etc.  Just neat sealed jars and containers. Yes please!

In my humble opinion, this is a win win situation.

Food Lovers reduces their footprint and costs by reducing packaging.

I help the environment by doing my bit and consuming responsibly & tell everyone how amazeballs Food Lovers Market is.

So imagine my pure joy when I happened to be in the vicinity of a Food Lovers Market (Bruma), and the awesome staff happily weighed my baklava not in paper or plastic, but in my own reusable beeswax food wrap from Abeego.  Then when I got to the Healthy Nibbles section, the lady was more than happy to weigh my jars and let me write on the weight.  I used my own reusable produce bags where necessary for my fruit and veg, and the only thing I couldn’t get unwrapped was cucumber.  What is it with cucumber and cling wrap?  You can buy apples, peaches and other delicate fruit unwrapped, but never cucumber.

The Olive Tap at Food Lovers Market in Bruma

My groceries from Food Lovers Market in Bruma, even package free chocolate treats.

Healthy Nibbles at Food Lovers Market in Bruma

So thank you to Food Lovers Market, let’s hope that more of your branches will embrace this style of shopping, which is far more normal than all this packaged food. I have heard of people having success in Cape Town stores too! Food Lovers, maybe you could go a step further and actually sell reusable cotton produce bags in store!

Hopefully this will also inspire more people across South Africa to reduce their waste by shopping like a normal person who values their food and cares about their impact in the world. Don’t feel awkward taking your own containers, just remember that if you do – YOU are the normal one! People are only staring … because they’re  a mixture of jealous & intrigued! 😉

I buy as much as I can in my own packaging.  Meat, cheese, take away drinks, take away food. It’s awesome! If we ever get take out pizza, I even take our own stainless steel lidded tray to put it in.

Let’s all do our bit!