Less is... less! Buy unpackaged
Jennifer Jaschek
21/08/23
Reading time: 8 minutes
Do you know how heavy a polar bear is? Hard enough to break the ice!
Or: just as heavy as the waste that, according to estimates by the Federal Statistical Office , was generated per capita in Germany in 2021 - namely a whopping 646 kilograms. This corresponds to the weight of an adult male polar bear .
A large proportion of this was household waste and packaging - waste that we, as everyday heroes, can reduce relatively easily. The options for this range from buying unpackaged vegetables in your supermarket around the corner, to coffee to go in your own cup, to shopping in so-called unpackaged shops.
In this blog article, some tips and tricks for saving waste are waiting for you.
It doesn't have to be zero waste
Let's be honest: living without creating any waste is a heroic resolution - but for most of us it's as realistic as the "I won't eat chocolate from next year" resolution on New Year's Day.
But: Before we don't even try, let's just take small steps.
Unpackaged stores, for example, offer a wide range of products that, as the name suggests, are sold without packaging.
Here you can easily fill, pack and buy the food of your choice as well as household products yourself. The products are in large dispensers or canisters, which saves a lot of packaging waste.
You can bring containers from home for filling and transport, or you can rent or buy them on site for a small fee.
Good to know
A walk to the Unverpackt store can also be combined with coffee and cake. In the next-door Unverpackt store in Munich, for example, homemade cakes and olive bread are waiting for you alongside fresh and seasonal products. A strengthening
after the little do-gooder campaign.
Utopia has created an exciting overview of unpackaged stores in the DACH region here . Have fun reading the creative names of the stores listed and find one near you, or check out Greenpeace's ReUse map .
Save waste through the right products
More tips & tricks
Another helpful tip that the Unpackaged Association points out: When shopping unpackaged, it is best to take a pen with you in addition to your own containers to label the containers. This can be useful for similar-looking products so as not to mix them up, or to note the best-before date.
But you can also start saving waste by simply buying vegetables and fruit at the nearest Rewe, Edeka, Lidl or Aldi.
A NABU study, for example, shows that packaged tomatoes in supermarkets make up 33% of the packaging waste from vegetable products - and that amounted to around 12,000 tons of plastic waste in 2019.
Simply pack your own reusable net, throw in loose tomatoes and boom – waste saved! More and more Edeka stores are now setting up their own unpackaged departments for other food and household products.
For example, you can create two separate lists to organize your purchases - one for the products that you want to buy unpackaged and one for the classic purchases. And best of all: always have an extra container with you for spontaneous purchases.
All good things are 3
Let's go! Simply choose three commonly packaged foods that you would like to replace with the unpackaged version to start your less waste resolution. You can also consult the offer lists of the respective stores for their product range and get an overview. An example trio to start with: pasta, oatmeal or muesli and tomatoes.
GREENFORCE supports you on your mission
Just like portioning when shopping without packaging, you can also save waste and counteract food waste with our Easy To Mix products. Did you know that you can often store the dry mixes for up to 18 months? Without any cooling or frills.
When hunger strikes: simply mix the required amount with water and prepare. Put the rest of the powder you don't need back on the shelf, tightly closed.
We wish you a happy shopping!
Jenny was born in Munich and studied economics in Passau. She is very interested in a sustainable lifestyle and enjoys researching any topic in order to understand the world a little more.
