While package hunt has been the heart of our preoccupations for few years, grocery stores without packages seem to have the wind in their sails today in Europe. Those new stores invite their customers to go shopping with their own reusable containers. We are done with plastic and cardboard packages, aluminium cans, plastic bags, it’s time to go on with the 100% unpackaged. Let’s have a look at this new ecological trend.

Which products?

Whereas the bulk sale has been most of time limited to pasta, rice, dried fructs and candies, this one is now extended to new products. From salty grocery (flours, soups, sauces, etc…) and sweet grocery (chocolate bars, biscuits, cacao powder, etc…) to fresh products (butter, yogourt, cheese, butcher shop, bread, etc …) including the household ones (washing power, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, etc…), nothing is forgotten by the bulk shops.

An ecologically sustainable consumer trend for the earth is not limited to food and household products, as the perfume industry has also become a part of this trend. From now, it is possible in some stores to recharge his empty perfume bottle!

How does it work?

The bulk shops invite their customers to bring their own reusable containers : glass jars, fabric bags, glass bottles etc. In this way, the customer only buys the quantity he needs of. Bye waste!

If you forget to bring your own container, or if the thing is that you simply do not have one, no worries! Most of bulk shops provide some reusable containers in their place.

Basically: we weight our jar, we put a sticker indicating it tare (empty weight), we fill it of whatever we want to and when we check out, the jar’s weight is deducted from the whole one. Ecological and effective!

A lovely gesture for the earth

It is time to end with the overpack! The package production uses a lot of energy and non-renewables ressources besides the fact that packages are rarely recycled. Once they have become trashes, the packages are incenerated or buried, consequently polluting soils and waters.

Confronted to this problem, we took part since a lot of years in the fight against the use of non-recyclable plastic bags. Our hard work has been successfully as in April 2015, the European Union has officially adopted the Directive which plans the consumption decrease of light plastic bags. Some european countries like France, Italy, Netherlands or Belgium choose to put the ban into practice.

Few exemples of bulk shops

Inspired by the success of this trend, many initiatives have emerged throughout Europe since the beginning of 2015, here are some exemples of those new grocery stores 100 % unpackaged.

• Original Unverpackt, Berlin

With their headline « Plastic is not fantastic », the new Berlin grocery store had a huge success in the capital city.

• Unpackaged, Londres

Created in 2006 by a londoner woman, the grocery store Unpackaged has for motto:

« A world without useless packages and with protected ressources for the next generations »

• La Recharge, Bordeaux

The unpackaged bulk shop from Bordeaux has opened its doors in July 2014. This is the first french grocery store in which customers can go shopping organic and local’s products without trashes.

• Day by Day, first bulk shop chain

Day by Day is the first chain of bulk shop to go daily shopping, you can buy whatever quantity you want and without packages. Some Day by Day grocery stores has already opened in Bordeaux, Fontenay-le-Fleury, Le Havre, Lille, Limoges, Meudon-la-forêt, Nantes, Reims, Rennes et Versailles. A dozen of Day by Day grocery stores’ opening are planned for 2016.

If you are not lucky enough to have a bulk shop close from home, most of supermarkets propose some bulk products. No more reasons to use polluting packages, it is time to consume in an ecological way!

Léa Daulan, Environment Editor