Most people are aware that shopping in bulk is a great money saver. Did you know that shopping in bulk is a green choice too? I use the term bulk food shopping to refer to buying goods from bulk bins at the store. I also use it to include buying in bulk packages. Shopping in bulk is a eco-friendly choice because it conserves energy in many ways. Learn all the advantages of buying in bulk here.
So you probably know that buying in bulk is supposed to save you money. At what point does buying in bulk stop being a wise spending choice? Well, it’s important to consider storage space, expiration dates for perishable items, and whether you’ll actually use the items before they expire when buying in bulk. Also consider the price per oz or pound to see how much you are saving by buying in bulk.
Benefits of Buying in Bulk
Here are all the reasons you want to create a natural and organic pantry filled with eco-friendly bulk foods to feed your family.
- Cost Savings: Buying in bulk often allows you to get a lower price per unit or ounce compared to buying smaller quantities. This is particularly true for non-perishable items. Organic bulk foods on average cost 89% less than their packaged counterparts!
- Convenience: Having a stockpile of essentials means fewer trips to the store, saving you time and effort.
- Availability: Some items may only be available in bulk, especially specialty or niche products.
- Emergency Preparedness: Having a stockpile of essentials can be useful in emergencies when stores may be closed or supplies may be limited.
- Eco-friendly Choice: Reduced packaging waste and transportation emissions.
Buying natural and organic bulk foods from the bulk bins provide significant benefits to the environment. Chief among these is that a substantial amount of packaging waste is diverted from landfills. Buying in bulk reduces the amount of packaging used for those goods. This results in less packaging waste in landfills as well as saving the water and energy used to produce the extra packaging.
Bulk foods also decrease emissions. The transportation of bulk product to retailers is efficient as it can be packed more densely on a truck. According to the ACEEE, “Freight trucks are responsible for almost 20% of all transportation-related fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.” Bulk food shopping helps reduce transportation inefficiency. Items packaged for bulk sale have less packaging and take up less space. This means that they can be transported more efficiently. In other words, less trips and less fuel will be needed to carry bulk packaging.
Where To Buy Bulk Foods:
Many health food stores have bulk aisles where you can load up things like oatmeal, grains, nuts, and even snack foods. While most conventional grocery stores don’t have large bulk sections, you can usually find at least a bulk coffee bean section.
When the bulk bins purchasing options are limited, go for large bulk bags. Instead of individually wrapped servings of chips that are then packaged again, get the “party sized” bag of chips and use bulk food storage containers such as jars or canister to store them. Then use small reusable containers to pack your food to go.
Another innovation that I have noticed is that some products are being concentrated. This provides the same benefits of buying in bulk. It reduces packaging waste and energy consumption as well as reduced freight weight and space. I am actually seeing this trend available at many major retailers and grocery stores.
You can also try bulk food shopping online with my affiliate links to retailers like iHerb and Amazon.
Conclusion
Buying in bulk can be beneficial for several reasons from saving money to saving time and energy resources. Typically, the cost per unit or ounce is lower when buying in bulk compared to buying smaller quantities. This is because the packaging costs are spread out over more units. Buying in bulk means you purchase larger quantities less often, saving you time and transportation costs. So get ready to love bulk foods! It is one of the easy ways to go green every day of the year. What products do you buy in bulk? Have you considered asking your grocer to carry more bulk items?
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Liz says
I’m all for doing this! I wish more grocery stores had bigger bulk sections though.
Lauralee Hensley says
The garden shop I went to, to get some information on my soil type, had bulk garden seeds. It was wonderful, they weren’t hidden inside little paper packages where you couldn’t see if they looked like strong healthy seeds or not. You could tell what they looked like. Then they were put inside of a small, not bleached paper towel and folded in the little towels. The little paper towel was then safe to put in the ground as compost because it doesn’t have any inks, or bleaches in it.