Out of the Kitchen

Ok, so I'm getting the hang of the package-free food thing. Rainbow Grocery and I are besties, and Whole Foods can be great, but their checkers never know how to tare, and it's embarrassing for both of us when I give them instructions for their own cash register. Anyway, while the food situation is far from perfect, I'm getting a solid feel for what works and what doesn't. But what about the rest of my life?

I realize throwing out everything in a package and starting over is not only beside the no waste point, but also expensive. That said, I'm suddenly feeling the need to purge what's now feeling like clutter and extra stuff. My belongings are starting to feel burdensome. Somewhere around 1am this morning, The Great Purge began. I started in my closet. Now, those who know me know the unhealthy relationship I have with footwear. And while I love every pair in my closet, the floral flats I bought on eBay in high school can probably go to a new home. Same with the Christian Dior knock-off gladiator heels I danced in in Miami, the black White House|Black Market pumps I got on sale for $15, and about 4 other pairs I just don't wear. Getting rid of stuff kind of gets addicting, and I moved onto clothes. 30 minutes later, two full shopping bags of clothes are lined up on their way to Goodwill, and my closet is much roomier. It's a little frightening, paring down only to (what I consider) essentials. But the true essential fact is I don't need these clothes. I probably don't need 3/4 of the clothes I kept, but let's not get too carried away.

On to the bathroom, where half used bottles of mystery product just seem to congregate to wallow and die in each other's company. Out went all the unused or mostly used products. It's painful to see all this waste (some of it is recyclable, much of it will be landfill), and it's a great motivator for future purchases. Do I really need this? Will it sit half empty in the medicine cabinet for 3 years? Will it end up in a landfill?


I even moved out into the living room, where I display books on my desk basically to ensure everyone who comes over knows what a shining member of the literati I am. Do I ever read these books again after the first time? If yes, I'll keep it. If no (which it is for most), why not donate so someone else can read them? Down also came tchotchkes, decorative knick knacks, and anything else that suddenly felt like clutter. I say this now, but the clean sweep did happen while my husband was sleeping, so we'll see what goes back up tomorrow.


Cleaning out my closet (cue Eminem) and bathroom is a pretty liberating feeling. I can already feel this waste-free business become less about food packaging and more about simplifying my life in general. Once the clutter is cleaned away, the essentials become clearer. I'm enjoying this emerging feeling of being able to focus on what I really love, like my Miu Mius and Jimmy Choos, without the knock-offs getting in the way.

And the money keeps rolling out...

We've been officially attempting to be "waste free" now for about 3 weeks, and the number one question I get (aside from "are you a nutjob?") is "Isn't it expensive?" That depends, I suppose, on who you're asking. If, for example, you've been living on Costco flats of Ramen and brunching on Sausage McMuffins, then yes, it's expensive. For me, since I usually shop at Whole Foods and buy more expensive gluten-free versions of everything (thanks to my membership to the Celiac Club), it's actually proving to be cheaper.

For example, a typical week of groceries usually runs me around $80 - $100. My post-vegetarian guilt leads me to the free-range eggs and organic meat. I like to think my food had a good life before I demolish its carcass. Gluten-free pasta, flour, bread, etc are usually about 10% more expensive than their wheat-y counterparts. As for the rest of it, who knows what I buy, but the amount always seems shockingly high.

Going waste-free has definitely cut down on some expenditures. Dried beans are dirt cheap, probably 25 cents compared to a $1.50 can. Bulk flour runs me about $3. Bulk rice, pasta and quinoa all clock in around $2 each.

Produce can get a bit pricier buying fresh over frozen, but the taste alone is worth the small expenditure. I bought fresh before this experiment anyway, so nothing has really changed there.

What really gets marked up going waste-free is dairy. Basically waste-free dairy = high quality dairy. Strauss Family Creamery bottles their organic milk in re-usable glass bottles. The half gallon runs about $4, with a $1.50 charge for the glass bottle that you get back when it's returned. Cheese is another tricky one. Cheese at the store is usually pre-packaged in plastic. I could probably bother the cheesemonger at Whole Foods to deposit a chunk of cheddar directly into one of my re-usable containers, but why do that when I work mere blocks from the mecca of all things cheese, Cowgirl Creamery? Cowgirl deserves a blog post of it's own, but suffice to say, it's cheese heaven. Most of their cheese is not pre-wrapped, and they happily shoved my Parmesan and "Wagon Wheel" in a glass jar. 

Anyway, back to the point. Whereas a week of groceries usually runs me around $90, my total bill this week for all my waste-free groceries? $70. That's $100 off my month's grocery purchases! Oh, and I'm shopping for 2, so that's about $35/week/person on groceries. Better for my wallet, better for the earth. Definitely a win-win.

Planning & Preparing

This zero waste business takes some serious planning. Running to the corner store is not so much an option anymore, so I had to think ahead for every ingredient. Here’s the dinner menu I put together for our first five days:

• salmon with bok choy and roasted potatoes
• spaghetti with marinara and asparagus
• quinoa bowl with black beans, bell pepper and salsa
• veggie pizza
• beef pot roast 

Luckily I live in San Francisco and have Rainbow Grocery, mecca of all things bulk, close by, as well as more Whole Foods than I can count on one hand. Aaron and I packed up our reusable shopping bags and headed off to Rainbow to kick start our zero waste kitchen. I was confident they’d have smaller reusable containers available to purchase for my bulk goods. So I was a bit shocked to find the bulk aisles stocked with disposable plastic bags and one semi decent smaller re-usable cotton bag… for $13. I purchased 4 glass jars around $2 each (with more planning I definitely could have found these cheaper elsewhere) and swore to re-use the plastic bags I did end up needing for bulk items as much as possible. Since then, I’ve actually gone a bit Laura Ingalls Wilder and sewed a few reusable bags out of old clean tees for future bulk purchases.

Here’s what I found and purchased in the bulk aisle:

• rice
• dried beans
• spaghetti
• quinoa 
• a huge variety of flours, including tapioca, sorghum, brown rice and millet 
• xanthan gum
• brown sugar
• Hungarian sweet paprika (yeah, seriously)
• granola
• chocolate covered raisins

Heading over to the dairy section, I was a bit disappointed to see all cheese was pre-wrapped in plastic and the cheesemongers had gone home for the day. So I skipped cheese and just bought a glass bottle of Strauss milk. The bottle is returnable for a $1.50 deposit and Strauss reuses 95% of their glass bottles. Later in the week, I walked over to the Ferry Building on my lunch and bought a delicious and affordably priced cheese from Cowgirl Creamery. They happily shoved their unpackaged and fresh cut cheese into my mason jar, warning me to let it breathe when I got home.

Produce was the easiest section to avoid waste. Instead of using plastic bags, I just put everything directly into my basket (except the mushrooms). I bought:

• zucchini
• tomatoes
• fresh basil
• mushrooms
• bell peppers
• avocado
• onion
• fresh cilantro
• jalapeño peppers
• eggplant
• limes
• fingerling potatoes
• asparagus

Over at Whole Foods, I struck out in the meat department. I didn’t have any containers from home to use, so they wrapped up my meat in paper. Next time I’ll try my luck with the butcher and a container from home.

Wine also poses an issue. As far as I can tell, the only way to get bulk wine is from a winery, and I’m not sure the drive to Napa outweighs the negatives of recycling glass. And let’s be realistic. I’m not giving up wine. Who are we kidding here.

All considered, I’m pretty pleased with my first attempt at zero waste shopping for the week. It’s far from perfect, but a vast improvement on our mountain of takeout boxes, not to mention the health and taste benefits of eating a more natural diet. It’s a start!