Day 6 of Plastic Free July was Avoid Pre-Packaged Produce. This focuses on buying loose or bulk produce instead of plastic-bagged produce. It also encourages you to avoid using plastic produce bags. Personally I would like it if we even avoided using single-use compost bags or paper bags for produce when there are reusable cotton and natural fiber bags that can be used over and over again. A compost bag or paper bag will still have 1-2 uses before it must be downcycled into a second product then composted.
Instead of buying apples or potatoes in plastic bags, buy loose potatoes. I weigh out produce and stick the sticker on myself to give the cashier when I check out. If you do get produce in a clear-ish plastic bag, recycled the plastic bags at the store plastic bag drop-off station at the front on your next trip.
Clementines, little oranges, Cuties, whatever you call these small orange-colored citrus in red mesh bags, they only come in red mesh bags. If you see them loose it’s highly likely the store employees tore them open to dump out for people who just want a few and not 2-5 lbs worth of citrus. I type this because I’ve seen it happen.
These mesh produce bags cannot be recycled (unless you pay for a special box through TerraCycle). I do not recommend you try and reuse them as scrubbies or any other reuse/DIY project as they shed microplastics all over the place.
This is my favorite way to transport peaches or nectarines, any soft loose fruit. I use a small box and cut the flaps off and then cut the flaps down to fit as dividers inside the box. Use a towel under the dividers to help cushion the fruit bottom.
Here we have the four options for lemon juice, or really any juice.
- loose real fruit whose rind you can compost. Trash the sticker.
- juice in a plastic bottle (or glass bottle). Recycle the bottle and lid.
- real lemons in a plastic clamshell. You would compost the lemon rinds and recycle the plastic clamshell.
- real fruit in the non-recyclable/non-reusable plastic mesh bag with the plastic tab. Compost the lemon rinds and trash the rest.
There are old fashioned glass juicers at antique malls or you can purchase a new one at a secondhand store or a new box store.
This hand juicer is from the Round Rock Antique Mall and is great. It takes all the pulp out for me and feels so smooth and well made.
If you cannot hand-juice, look into a quality machine that can be reused and repaired.
Fresh grapes, cherries and the like are unavoidable in plastic bags it seems.
The grape bag plastic is mixed plastic and cannot be recycled.
To reduce your plastic in this area, perhaps buy these foods less often and consider them more of a treat.
I hope this inspires you to shop for your fruit and veggies a little differently. Most produce departments now carry reusable light weight mesh bags for this purpose or you can reuse something you already have, just make sure it’s like and you include a drawstring so they don’t roll out all over the conveyor belt.
#produce #looseproduce #lessplastic #bulkproduce #meshbags #reusablebags #bringyourownbag #byob