No-Waste for Produce, No Problem!

                One of the most efficient ways to lessen the amount of waste we produce in the kitchen is to buy less packaged food. One of the best rules to follow when shopping in a grocery store while trying to buy less packaged food is the “stick to the walls” rule, meaning that while shopping, stay on the outside areas of the store (the produce area, fresh meats and bread, dairy section) where there is less packaging. In addition to less packaging, keeping to the outside of the grocery store promotes a much healthier diet!

                The general goal of my Genius hour is to effectively get rid of my garbage can, but even in the fresh areas of the grocery store there is sources of waste. A lot of leafy greens in the grocery stores have to be put into bags, come with some plastic wrap or come in plastic containers. A good portion of the packaging in the produce, meat and bread section can be recycled, but not all of it! In order to avoid all the unnecessary packaging from my produce purchases, I sought out a market-type retailer.

                Fiddies Whole-sale Produce is a Hamilton based produce retailer that focuses mostly o restaurant deliveries. In addition to that, their warehouse serves as a cash-only produce retailer that allowed me to buy all my produce without any packaging! Below is a few pictures of the layout of the location. This business mirrors a Farmers market setting, which are great places to go if a wholesale location like this is not near you! Farmers markets, although they are usually only open once or twice a week, are great locations if you want to cut out waste for all of your groceries because most of them have meat, bread and other sections.

            Not only are places like Fiddies and various Farmers markets great places to shop if you want to go home with little to no waste, they are much cheaper. The image below shows what I bought during my first trip. The produce I bought is fresh, mostly Canadian grown and my bill only came to $24.00, and based on the sheer volume of food I purchased, I saved a lot of money compared to grocery store prices. 

          This week also made me realize how important knowing your areas recycling rules are. I was blown away by the fact that in Hamilton, you can recycle any plastic bags that “stretch” which allows anyone to cut down on their waste big time! I also found a great resource for anyone in the Hamilton area that want to get better at recycling. The city of Hamilton’s recycling information website has an in-app feature, called RecycleCoach, that allows anyone to look up a product to see if it can be recycled. Users can download it as an app so you can use it anywhere at anytime! 

            Finding the place where I can buy most of my food with no waste was crucial for my Genius Hour. Whole-sale locations allow anyone to buy healthy foods cheaper and with minimal waste! The next step towards making my kitchen No-waste Kitchen is finding places where I can buy meat and bread while using re-usable bags instead of their bags. I’m intrigued about where I will be able to do this.

Thanks for reading!