One way to go green and save money at the same time is to buy in bulk. It also feels good to be prepared by having extras on hand for emergencies. Make sure to store your bulk purchases in Ziploc® Brand Containers, as they can be used over and over. Here are a few ways that buying in bulk will help you go green, as well as tips for buying and storing bulk purchases.
Eco Advantages of Buying In Bulk
Buying in bulk is an eco-friendly choice for several reasons. First, you create less waste by using less packaging, which results in using less resources and less energy. Furthermore, by using less packaging more product can be shipped in the same amount of space, reducing carbon emissions. These eco advantages really add up to huge savings in terms of natural resources and personal savings.
Ways to Buy In Bulk
There all kinds of ways to buy in bulk. Often, there are bulk goods sections at stores. They may just be hidden off to the side. You can also choose to buy the largest available size of an item, even if you will not be eating it all in one sitting. Personally, my favorite tip is to buy full-size packages of snacks, like cookies or crackers, and divvy them up into personal servings using reusable small Ziploc® Brand Containers. This way, you can be more disciplined about your portion sizes, while avoiding the markup and waste of those popular “100 calorie” sized snacks.
A lesser-known way to buy in bulk is to purchase concentrates. Many liquid products come in a concentrated form that you dilute at home, saving on the environmental cost of shipping as well as packaging. You can find concentrates of your favorite cleaning supplies such as Windex® and Pledge® online through the SC Johnson Marketplace.
Tips for Storing Bulk Purchases
A pantry full of bulk purchases can easily get disorganized. A great solution to this problem is to divvy up your purchases into meal sized portions and store in reusable Ziploc® Brand Containers. For example, I buy rice in giant, unwieldy bags from my favorite wholesale store. When I get home, I measure out a single dinner’s worth of rice and store in Ziploc® Brand Containers, saving me time on those busy weeknights. Even better, by storing bulk purchase in smaller, reusable containers, they will stay fresher longer, can be labeled easily and stack well in tight pantries.
Another tip for storing bulk purchases is to make sure that you are storing food at the correct temperature. For example, some whole grains, seeds and nuts may last longer when stored in the refrigerator.
Motivating Bulk Statistics
If you need more encouragement, here are a couple of statistics that may motivate you to buy in bulk:
According to Portland State University’s Food Industry Leadership Center (FILC), if every American purchased bulk coffee for one year, 240 million pounds of foil packaging would be eliminated from landfill.
According to SC Johnson, if just 20 percent of the 320 million cleaning products sold in trigger bottles were refilled with a concentrated refill each year, it could save more than 7 million pounds of plastic and avoid transporting nearly 11.5 million gallons of water.For an easy way to go green and save green, try incorporating a new product in bulk each week.
What are your favorite products to buy in bulk?
Photo courtesy of Scarlet Paolicchi.