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eridani

(51,907 posts) Fri Jan 22, 2016, 02:06 AM Jan 2016

Let Them Eat Bulk: The Success of France’s Cheap, Zero-Waste Food Chain

http://www.takepart.com/article/2016/1/19/bulk?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2016-01-21-Rhino

VERSAILLES, France—Burlap bags line the storefront windows of Day by Day, a fast-growing chain of bulk stores that are popping up all over France. Decorative tin cans mingle with glass jars in all sorts of shapes and sizes on the shelves of loose bars of soap release a pleasant aroma—all reminiscent of the grocery store that I could have dreamed up trying to reproduce Oleson’s Mercantile as depicted in the Little House on the Prairie TV show.

I was recently invited to the Versailles branch to sign copies of my book Zero Waste Home, a guide to leading a zero-waste lifestyle, and the displays there are incomparable to any I have seen when I shop from bulk bins at stores like Whole Foods in the U.S., or hundreds of stores worldwide specializing in packaging-free foods. Going packaging-free for food purchases by frequenting bulk foods sections is a high-impact way to shrink your waste: In the U.S., about 30 percent of total waste is food containers and packaging, such as cereal boxes, milk cartons, and potato chip bags.

If the cozy aesthetic lures customers into the French stores, then the variety keeps them coming back. A large inventory is sold in bulk: savory and sweet snacks, oils and vinegars, and dry staples such as flour, legumes, and grains. From angel-hair to ziti, I counted 27 kinds of pasta in this store alone. Beyond food and cleaning products, it also sells hygiene products, such as solid toothpaste and shampoo bars made with natural ingredients, and reusable goods, such as washable makeup-removal pads.

All the packaging-free consumables a zero-waste household could dream of. Customers go in with their own containers, weigh them, fill them, and are able to come home with no packaging whatsoever. They buy as little or as much as they need, which means the store provides a solution to the 44 pounds of food—15 pounds of which are unopened—the average French consumer wastes each year, according to a study by French environmental officials.