Zero-Waste Retailers Reduce Garbage

A new grocery store without bags and packages will soon open in New York.

July 08, 2016

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Need just a cup of sugar? Then a zero-waste grocery store might be the place for you. No-waste markets have sprung up in Barcelona, Spain, Vienna and Berlin. The concept aims to reduce the amount of garbage people have to throw away after they come home from the grocery store by simply not providing bags or packages for food items, The Huffington Post reports.

For example, shoppers put dry goods, such as spices or grains, into their own glass jars, cloth sacks or other containers. Dispensers can be filled with syrup, honey, vinegar or oils much like reusable growlers are filled with fresh beer. Milk would be dispensed in glass bottles, which shoppers return on their next grocery trip. The goal of such zero-waste markets is for shoppers to purchase only what they need, rather than buying a four-pound bag of sugar for one cup’s worth.

The concept, popular in Europe, is now crossing the Atlantic. In Brooklyn, N.Y., Fillery is a no-waste grocery store set to open later this year. “It’s hard not to notice how much waste is generated here,” said owner Sarah Metz. “You walk past piles of trash that are higher than you are.”

Across the country in Denver, Zero Market will soon track how much packaging customers haven’t used from shopping at the store. Suppliers have been slow to catch on to the store’s concept, said co-founder Lyndsey Manderson, as items arrive buried underneath Styrofoam. “We need to be practicing zero-waste as a store, and it’s about trying to find that line of when we’re not being responsible with the products delivered to us,” she said.

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