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Walking up and down the bulk food aisle [2]at your local supermarket can be somewhat intimidating and overwhelming. The sheer number of bins is mind-boggling and the choices are endless. Take your pick from bins of grains, cereals, dried fruits, nuts, spices or baking ingredients.
Buying from the bulk bins at the grocery store is a great way to save money on your food bill, but that’s not the only reason to shop the bulk bins. Here are a few more reasons to buy in bulk:
- Get more bang for your buck
- Bye bye wasteful packaging
- Buy only what you need
- Ability to test out new products without a big investment
Take the “Pledge to Love Bulk Food”
To help celebrate Earth Month this April, the Bulk is Green Council (BIG) is challenging consumers to take the pledge to “Love Bulk Foods” (foods bought from the bulk bins of a grocery store).
Why should consumers take BIGs pledge to Love Bulk Foods?
- If Americans purchased all of their coffee from the bulk bins for 1 month (Earth Month), 20,000,000 pounds of foil packaging would be saved from landfills. That¹s the equivalent weight of 7,667 compact cars.
- If the average American family bought peanut butter in bulk for 1 month, 1Ž2 pound of waste per family would be saved from entering landfills.
- If Americans purchased all of their almonds in bulk for 1 month, 6,000,000 pounds of waste would be saved from landfills. That¹s the equivalent weight of 522.5 elephants.
- Purchasing oatmeal from the bulk bins saves 5x the waste of its packaged equivalent
What is the Pledge to Love Bulk Food?
Take the pledge to purchase bulk foods once a week during the month of April, Earth Month (remember to bring your reusable bag [3]s!). If you’re interested in taking the pledge head on over to the Love Bulk Foods pledge page and sign a digital pledge. To make it easy to get on board with foods from the bulk bins, the Bulk is Green Council has outlined week-by-week the best bulk foods to purchase during Earth Month, that also offer significant environmental benefits (check out the infographic below).
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If you pledge you’re automatically entered in a drawing where winners will be selected once a week at random and receive their very own Earth Month starter kit filled with everything needed to help create a natural and organic pantry and get on board with bulk foods. The prize pack includes recycled glass storage jars and a starter kit of common/popular natural and organic bulk foods that can be found in most bulk bins of natural food co-ops and grocery stores from the following brands: SunRidge Farms, Frontier Natural Products Co-op, Lundberg Family Farms, and several other bulk brands.
Do you use bulk food bins? What are your favorite bulk foods to buy?