A month without plastic: The first purchase hits me almost beat
by Qian Leung
@ 14 Jun 2018
An adventurous soul in Munich, Germany decides to go plastic-free. Here’s the account, google-translated from the original German text.
"I want to give up plastic in my everyday life for four weeks - and soon realize that I have to get some basic things in a packaging-free store. How much I had to spend on it surprised me a lot.
I need 27 minutes by bike from my front door to one of the two packaging-free shops that are in Munich. That's five times longer than my regular supermarket. But I cannot complain: From a blog on the topic of sustainability, I gather that there are only hundreds of shops in Germany. Elsewhere, I would have to go much further.
The preparation: A purchase without plastic wants to be planned
"The packaging-free shopping requires some preparation," I read on the website of the store, where I want to make my first completely plastic-free purchase. I moan internally. I swear that the transition to a plastic-free life is associated with some extra effort, at least in the initial phase.
I still want to get involved, continue to read and learn that I should either bring my own containers to refill food or buy them at the store. In fact, I hardly own any of the proposed products: glass containers, lunch boxes or cotton sacks. So far, I have kept food mainly in Tupperware - but that's taboo during my plastic free challenge.
So I'll stock up with containers in the store first. This will probably make purchasing a bit difficult, I think and consider for a moment to go shopping by car instead of bike. For a moment, I wonder if I have made a mistake.
In the shop: toilet paper, coffee beans and rice without packaging
In the "without" store in Munich are large glass bottles, from which I can pump off body lotion, detergent or washing powder. Single, unpacked toilet paper rolls pile up on the floor. From different tubes I can fill my glass containers with cereals, coffee beans, rice or nuts.
It seems a bit like a resourceful businessman tore ten packs of cereal in the morning and put them in one of the cylinders so that would-be world improvers like me can shop with a good feeling. Of course it is not like that. Even so, some products that are sold in unpacked stores come into contact with plastic during transport - but much less so than in other stores.
Is this only for cool singles who have too much money?
Almost every product is weighed at the cash register, and the cashier must also deduct the weight of the containers. So I'm in line for quite a while and have enough time to think about my plastic-free challenge. The thought comes to me that such an unpacked shop is not meant for the masses, not for families and not for the impatient.
The typical buyer is probably a cool single who has enough money and is not picky. After all, there is exactly one type of coffee, one type of toothpaste, one type of body lotion ... If parents were to shop here for their entire family, they would have to spend quite a lot of money, quite a lot of lugging (my glass container weighs almost a kilo with only five servings of cereal) and would probably not get much in the quantities they needed. When I am using the espresso beans, I empty the complete remaining supply of 200 grams into my container. More is currently not available in the store.
Saving the world is quite expensive
I pay € 81.95 (S$129) at checkout - I have never spent so much in a grocery store for so few products. I'm almost hit. Well, including a few products that I've gained once now and that I will use for a long time.
After shopping: My conclusion
And, at least I have a good feeling now? Somehow not. I am annoyed that I did not buy the containers cheaper before shopping in other stores. Also from the selection I am disappointed. Tomorrow morning I will have breakfast cereal, although I would rather have a cheese sandwich. But there was no cheese in the packaging-free store ...
By the way: Christoph Schulz from Berlin has been doing without plastic for two years and has told me that he has not spent more, but less money since then. How this can be, he explains to me here in an interview."
For the original story in German, please view
here.
