How to shop in an environmentally friendly way? Here are 5 tips for you
It is often thought that it is very difficult to shop in a green way, especially if we do not have the possibility to stock up in a local market, where you can buy bulk products. The good news is that even in the supermarket, our choices can make a difference. Here are 5 simple tips to put into practice right away to make your shopping cart a little greener!
5 tips for green shopping: avoid unnecessary packaging
If you can choose between apples packaged in a polystyrene and plastic tray and those you put yourself in the compostable bag, it is definitely better to opt for the second solution. in this way you avoid producing totally useless waste. The compostable bag can be used to collect the wet or be thrown directly into the bin, because it will decompose. The plastic tray definitely not!
5 tips for a green shopping: check the expiration dates
If you can and if you know you will consume them, try to buy foods that are close to their expiration date, so they don’t risk spoiling on the shelves and being thrown away. Unfortunately, food waste is a plague that we are all called to heal.
5 tips for green shopping: choose seasonal and locally produced foods
The less commute the food has to travel to reach the supermarket shelves, the better! For fruit and vegetables, it is mandatory to specify the origin: if you live in Milan, wait for April for the strawberries, so that they are those of the greenhouses closest to you and not those grown on the other side of Italy. The same thing can be said for berries: avoid buying those that come from Mexico or Peru (how many kilometers did those raspberries and blackberries travel inside the fridges?) And wait for our own ones.
5 tips for green shopping: prefer compostable packaging and avoid plastic
Between a yoghurt in a plastic jar and one in a disposable jar in the paper or in the wet, prefer, if you can, the latter. If you consume a lot of yoghurt, try to buy one kilo packs, so as to produce as little waste as possible. Keep large and sturdy bags in the car to put your shopping in or reuse the packaging cartons that some supermarkets provide: fewer new bags in the environment, less waste, less pollution!
5 tips for a green shopping: try the vegetable
If you feel like it, try replacing cow’s milk with similar vegetable drinks: rice milk, soy, oat … the options are endless. The same goes for trying to consume as few meat foods as possible and replace them with legumes. Beyond ethical reasons, which are individual and personal, from the point of view of environmental impact, the difference is enormous.
