Tips on Reducing Plastic at the Supermarket

Lately, I’ve been blogging mostly about how to REDUCE plastic when shopping for food at supermarkets and green grocers. Here’s a quick summary of tips:

• BRING YOUR OWN BAGS. Then you can refuse the plastic shopping bags, especially all the ones from the green grocers. Remember, you can buy cotton bags for only LE 5 from Ibrahim the tailor on Fanar Street.

• BRING YOUR OWN CONTAINERS. Use them to buy all sorts of goods in bulk – butter, cheese, flour, rice, nuts, spices, and more.

• MAKE IT YOURSELF. Skip the plastic-packaging and make your own! Bread, snacks and sweets, pasta, drinks – you name it and you’ll find a recipe online for it.

• DRINK WELL WATER OR BUY WATER IN RETURNABLE BOTTLES.

And if all else fails,

• BUY THE LARGEST PACKAGE AVAILABLE. Skip the individual size packages. Instead buy the largest box or bottle possible. This cuts down on the amount of plastic needed for each product.

I will continue to share tips and practical advice on shopping for food with less plastic. I will also start to discuss how we can reduce the plastic involved with household cleaning and self-care products so visit again soon!

Refuse ~ Reduce ~ Reuse ~ Recycle

Buying Cheese with Less Packaging

Before I talk about plastic-free cheese, let’s take a moment to review why we should REFUSE plastic packaging, especially when it is on our food and drink, because it’s about more than just our environment. It’s about our health. Studies show that the phthalates in plastic packaging leach into food. These chemicals have been linked to health ailments ranging from asthma and allergies to early puberty and fertility issues brought on by hormone disruption. There is still debate about how much of these chemicals our body can absorb before they become dangerous toxins.

Here are a few articles if you’d like to read more:

• How bad is plastic packaging for us?
• Is plastic food packaging dangerous?
• Poisoned by plastic: Chemicals in water bottles and food packaging have been linked to infertility and birth defects. Scaremongering, or the truth?
• Study: All Plastics Are Bad for Your Body

One easy way to avoid plastic packaging on cheese is to BRING YOUR OWN CONTAINER to the deli at the supermarket. Ask the store clerk to weigh your container first and “zero” the scale before placing the cheese in your container. As usual, our deli of choice is the one at Alf Sunf (1,000 Items) in Asalah Square. They have always been very patient with our requests and willing to use the containers we bring. Every once in awhile a new clerk will start working at the deli and we have to repeat our request, sometimes explaining and assisting with the scale.

We don’t buy cheese unless we have our own container with us, but that wasn’t always the case. Most supermarkets offer cheese on a polystyrene tray wrapped in plastic. In the past, if we forgot our container, we would at least REFUSE the tray and ask only for the plastic, which at least meant a little less waste.

But we’re still working on replacing our reusable plastic containers with other materials so, yes, that cheese pictured above is in a plastic box. This solution may be better for the environment but not necessarily better for our health. Ideally, we’d store all our food in glass or stainless steel containers. Baby steps. Reducing the amount of plastic we use is definitely a process and not something we can accomplish overnight.

What steps are you taking to reduce the amount of plastic waste your household produces?

Refuse ~ Reduce ~ Reuse ~ Recycle

Shopping for Spices and Skipping the Plastic

If you enjoy cooking or baking as much as we do in our house, you probably purchase a variety of spices, which are usually sold in small plastic packages or in small glass jars. That used to mean that we would come home from the supermarket with numerous plastic packets of spices, some holding barely a tablespoon of spice. If we happened to shop in Sharm el Sheikh, we might purchase spices in glass jars (with plastic tops), some of which we managed to refill or reuse.

Spices, then, were high on our list of priorities for foodstuff we wanted to purchase package-free. We are lucky here in Dahab because there are several different shops in town that sell spices from bulk bags. But, of course, what we shoppers have to remember is to bring our own containers!

Our favorite shop to buy spices from is the spice/nut/candy shop directly next to Ralph’s German Bakery in Assalah Square. (I have no idea what the name of this shop is. Must ask the next time we are there!) When we started purchasing our spices in bulk, we brought along our own REUSABLE plastic boxes, like the ones pictured below.

Anise and ginger – two of the most-used spices in our house.

Then I came across a post in Dahab Gives and Wishes on Facebook where someone was offering three empty tea tins for free – so I grabbed them! They are perfect for filling up with spices and skipping ALL plastic. 🙂

This amount of cinnamon should last a couple of months.

This shop next to the bakery offers a variety of spices in bulk: cinnamon, ginger, anise, cardamom, cumin, coriander, pepper, and more! And, yes, like all of our plastic-free adventures, it sometimes involves some persistence on our part to REFUSE the plastic bags. But as we continue to visit this shop and request that they use our own containers, the shop keepers get more used to us and have an easier time dealing with the scale and boxes. So, as always, be patient in explaining your request and wear a smile on your face and most shopkeepers will be happy to fill your containers.

What spices do you use most in your kitchen? Are you willing to try buying spices in bulk? What would make this easier for you?

Refuse ~ Reduce ~ Reuse ~ Recycle

Bread Sticks and Other Baked Goods

Here’s an easy way to REDUCE your plastic footprint:

REFUSE to purchase bread products in plastic bags. Bring your own cotton bag or other container to the bakery and fill it with your favorite baked goods.

We bring our own cotton bag to the bakery at the start of Mileel Street (behind Ibrahim’s veggie shop). There we can buy bread sticks, crackers, fitteer, and fino sandwich rolls – all without the plastic bags. The bread sticks and crackers are usually not bagged so it is easy to fill our bag with how much we want and then weigh and pay. Sometimes the fitteer and sandwich rolls are already in plastic bags. It just depends on our timing. But if the bread is already in plastic bags, we REFUSE to buy it and will return at another time to purchase the bread straight from the trays. (Just FYI, the bread sticks and crackers are bought by weight but the fitteer and sandwich rolls are bought by the piece.) And although we don’t usually buy them, I imagine you can also bring your own container to purchase the cookies and other sweets available at the bakery.

 

 

Homemade Crunchy Granola

In her efforts to help us reduce our plastic footprints, activist and author Beth Terry poses several questions that encourage us to reflect on the plastic trash that we “throw away”. One of those questions is: Which items can you replace with plastic-free or less-plastic alternatives?

One of the items that used to end up in my trash was the plastic bag that breakfast cereal comes packaged in. This was an obvious starting place for me to look for plastic-free alternatives, not just for the sake of the environment but also for the sake of my wallet! My preferred breakfast cereal is granola (similar to muesli) and the tastiest cereals are always the imported – and expensive – brands. Since there were no plastic-free alternatives on the market, it was time to make my own granola. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing for several years now. And as I’ve learned about more plastic-free alternatives as far as the ingredients go, I can now create a completely plastic-free granola!

I can’t share an exact recipe with you, but here is a list of what went into the batch of granola I made today:

Whole meal flour (purchased in a paper sack)

Oatmeal (purchased in a metal tin that can be recycled)

Dried Coconut Flakes (purchased in my own container from the bulk bags)

Walnuts (purchased in my own container from the bulk bags)

Sesame Seeds (purchased in my own container from the bulk bags)

Cinnamon (purchased in my own container from the bulk bags)

Butter (purchased in my own container)

Molasses (comes in a glass jar, can be recycled)

Vanilla Oil (purchased in a small glass bottle from a local spice shop)

Dried Apricots and Raisins (purchased in my own container from the bulk bags)

Basically, I mix all the dry ingredients except for the fruit together in a large bowl. I use about a cup each of the flour, oatmeal, and coconut and about a ½ cup each of the nuts and seeds. I melt the butter and molasses together, add a few drops of vanilla oil, and then pour the melted butter over the dry ingredients and mix together. 

All of the ingredients mixed together.

Next I spread the mixture on a tray and bake until crisp and golden brown. (Today I baked the granola for a bit too long so it’s extra dark and crispy!) 

Baked granola on a tray mixed with dried fruit.

Once it’s cooled down, I mix in the dried fruit and then store in containers. Delicious with milk or yogurt for breakfast…or covered with a chocolate sauce for a healthy dessert. 🙂

Enough granola for a couple of weeks!

Not only is my granola plastic-free and less expensive, it’s also tastier than any packaged cereal. Win-win-win! (The plastic jar that I’m using here for storage originally contained honey and I am REUSING it. I need more large glass jars!)

If you’re interested in preparing your own granola or breakfast cereals, simply search the Internet for recipes. There are tons of tempting recipes available out there! 

Refuse ~ Reduce ~ Reuse ~ Recycle

Bring your own container for take-away!

Who doesn’t love koshary?! I know I do! But I REFUSE to buy koshary from the street carts because the pasta and rice are usually already packed in a disposable plastic container. Instead we buy koshary for take-away from the Mix Restaurant on the corner of Fanar Street, across from Leila’s Bakery. A delicious, nutritious, and plastic-free meal!

Buying Butter without Packaging

Egyptian butter is often sold in either plastic bags or on polystyrene trays with plastic wrap. You’ll usually find this butter in the big freezers or refrigerated deli counters. Imported butter is also available wrapped in waxed or foiled paper. 

Fortunately for us here in Dahab, it’s also very easy to buy butter without any packaging! Simply bring your own container and ask the deli clerk for the amount of butter, in fractions of kilos, that you would like to buy. He’ll weigh your container first and then add the butter that you’ve asked for. When you are ready to check-out, the deli clerk will confirm with the cashier how much butter he has given you. Buying butter in your own container allows you not only to reduce waste, but also to choose the exact amount of butter you’d like since the clerk will be cutting off smaller pieces from a large block of butter. Buy a lot and keep it in your own freezer or purchase just a small amount. It’s up to you!

REFUSING to buy butter in its usual packaging takes some practice – and some planning! As usual, we recommend the deli at the 1,000 Items (Alf Sunf) supermarket located in Asalah Square. The clerks there are friendly and are now used to us bringing our own containers. Friends of mine have also reported that El Wekala supermarket, next to Ibrahim’s veggie shop in the square, are also open and easy-going about customers bringing their own containers.

(If you’re wondering what’s so bad about the polystyrene trays, read this.)

Have you purchased butter using your own container? Did you find the clerks helpful or did you run into any problems? Or are you willing to try this on your next shopping trip?

Refuse ~ Reduce ~ Reuse ~ Recycle

 

Buying from Bulk Bags

In my last post, I wrote about buying flour in paper sacks or buying it from the bulk bags available at stores in Asalah. Today, I’d like to talk about other food goods that we can purchase from these bags.

Buying from the bulk bags is a great way to reduce the amount of plastic you bring home from the supermarket.

Besides flour, here are a few of the items you can purchase from the bulk bags:

• lentils, several variety of beans, chick peas

• karkade

• white rice

• sesame seeds

• sage

• nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts)

There’s more, of course, but these are the items that interested me the most. And all of them are typically sold in plastic packaging and some of them – like the nuts – with polystyrene or plastic trays as well. 

TIP: Research what’s available in bulk from your favorite shop. Check out other shops if you can’t find what you’re looking for. Our favorite shop is 1,000 Items (Alf Sunf) in Asalah Square.

We bring either a reusable cotton bag (recently washed) or a plastic box. We usually weigh and fill the containers ourselves, but sometimes the store clerk will assist with the weighing by taring the scale (setting it to zero with the container on it). If you don’t have a bag or container to use, you can always REUSE plastic shopping bags that you already have. This is, in fact, what the clerk at 1,000 Items says he sees more people doing.

TIP: Bring your own reusable bag or container and remember to weigh it before you fill it.

Some of the goods will need to be washed and/or picked through before use. We didn’t do this with the first bag of lentils we purchased from the bulk bag – and we have learned our lesson after trying to eat a bowl of very gritty lentils! It’s not uncommon to find a few small stones mixed in (found a couple in my last batch of chick peas), but I’ve also found rocks in food packaged in plastic so it’s just good practice to pick through all dry goods before cooking.

TIP: At home, transfer the goods to a glass or other reusable container for storage.

We didn’t switch to buying these foods from the bulk bags all at once. We started with the nuts and moved on from there. It takes time to form new habits so be patient with yourself. We haven’t actually bought the rice from the bulk bags yet; it’s next on our list. But each item we can purchase without packaging means less plastic trash!

TIP: Choose the one food item that is usually packaged in plastic that you use the most and start with that one. As you – and the store clerk – become more used to this plastic-free habit, choose and add another item to purchase from the bulk bags.

Do you purchase items from the bulk bags? If so, do you have a preferred store? If not, are you willing to try? Why or why not?

Refuse ~ Reduce ~ Reuse ~ Recycle

Plastic-free Flour

I posted recently about food packaging and if you have had a chance to look at the trash you “throw away” you may have noticed that a lot of it is plastic packaging from food. And while some of it may be recyclable, most of it is not.

So, it’s finally time to talk about some changes we can make in our food shopping habits (other than taking our own reusable bags) that will help reduce our plastic footprints!

I love to bake. Waffles, cakes, cookies, bread, tortillas, muffins – yum! This all takes flour, of course, which is most commonly available and purchased in plastic bags. What, then, are the alternatives?

I often use whole-meal flour which is available in paper sacks from the company Five Star. This company packages many types of flour in paper as opposed to plastic. In the past, I would stock up on several bags of the whole-meal flour whenever I went shopping in Sharm el Sheikh because it wasn’t always available here in Dahab. In Sharm, you can find it at Carrefour and Metro Market (and maybe Ragab Sons, I can’t remember). But now you can find a variety of paper-packaged flours in Dahab at CHEF on Peace Road! They also sell a lovely variety of other flours and grains, but so far they are all packaged in plastic so, although tempted, I have not purchased any of these. 

Another plastic-free option for flour is bringing your own bag or container and buying flour from the bulk bags available at many stores in Asalah. This is something that we have only started to do in the last couple of months. We use one of our many cotton bags – freshly washed – and purchase plain flour and bran from the bulk bags at Alf Sunf (1,000 Items) in Asalah Square. At home, I empty the flour into a large glass container for storage. Last week, the store also had Five Star semolina flour in bulk bags!

You can either weigh the flour yourself or give the clerk your container and he will weigh and fill it for you. The clerks at Alf Sunf are used to us and our plastic-free ways by now, but other stores and clerks won’t be. So remember to ask politely and be patient. This is as new to them as it is to you!

TIP: Weigh your bag or container first, then add the flour until you have the desired amount. Our bag weighs 65 grams and we typically buy a kilo of flour. So we fill until the scale reads 1065 g. Sometimes, if a clerk is assisting, they will tare (or zero) the scale with our bag on it. This allows you to just worry about the weight of the contents (in this case, the flour) not the container.

Buying the flour in paper bags is obviously the easier way to go, and buying from the bulk bags takes a little more time and effort on our part. Are you willing to purchase flour from the bulk bags? Why or why not? 

Plastic Packaging of Food

Many of the items on my list of plastic trash that gets “thrown away” at our house are plastic-packed groceries, or food items.

Here are a couple of general tips for buying food with less plastic:

Always buy foods in large-sized packages. REFUSE the single-serving size. This is especially relevant when buying milk, yogurt, nuts, chips, and juice. Buying these food and drink items in larger sizes reduces the packaging-to-product ratio, which means you will be “throwing away” less plastic. 

• Buy the 1 ½ liter cartons of milk.

• Buy the largest size of yogurt, at least the 1 kilo container (available from Juhayna).

• Buy the 1 liter cartons of juice, not the individual juice boxes.

• Buy your snacks in the largest bags or containers possible.

If you’ll be sending the food or drink with children for school lunches, or packing them for your own picnic, you can repackage the food at home into smaller, individual size servings in reusable plastic or metal containers or small glass jars.

Yes, this means a bit more time and effort on our part, but it also means a lot less plastic packaging will end up in our dumpsters (and streets and seas and deserts).

So remember, in this case – bigger is better!

This is, of course, just the start of how we can reduce out plastic footprint when it comes to food. We’ll be exploring many other ideas so check back often.

Refuse ~ Reduce ~ Reuse ~ Recycle