Online grocery shopping is nothing new. But an online grocery service that doesn’t use any plastic? That is different! It’s called Zero Grocery and none of the groceries it delivers are packaged in plastic.
zero plastic grocery shopping
Serving San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area, Zero Grocery offers discounted groceries in sustainable packaging — no plastic. There are over 1,300 available grocery items, all packaged in glass jars, boxes, or other forms of sustainable packaging.
What about potato chips? Cereal? Half-and-half? They all come in glass jars, of varying sizes. Meat, for example, comes wrapped in compostable paper. And the groceries themselves arrive in reusable grocery bags.
The cost of membership is $25/month, which gets you unlimited free delivery with a minimum order, dropped off at your front door. Hang on to the used bags and jars and they’ll get picked up when your next order is delivered. Non-members can also shop the site, but have to pay a delivery fee.
local sourcing
Zero Grocery also aims to source fresh food locally as much as possible. They source herbs from Bay Area Herbs, and get seafood from Four Star Seafoods in San Francisco. Beef comes from C&H Meat Company in Castro Valley, CA. They also offer other familiar brands that you’d find in a typical grocery store, though likely in different packaging.
keeping things clean
Choosing a reusable model means it’s important to make sure all containers and bags are cleaned for the next person. Zero Grocery washes all jars in a commercial-grade washer and then sanitize them. They wash and spray all reusable grocery bags with food-grade sanitizer between each customer. And, they pack groceries in a closed, sanitary warehouse.
Zero Grocery’s core mission is to remove single-use plastic from the food system, and selling groceries in reusable non-plastic packaging is a big step in that direction!
Sources: Fast Company; Zero Grocery. Image from Zero Grocery.
