Ever feel a pang of guilt throwing away glass bottles, plastic containers, and loads of other completely reusable packaging materials? If that’s you, then the zero-waste grocery store in.gredients coming to Austin, Texas will be your new favorite store.
Americans throw away 1.4 billion pounds of waste every day, and 40% of it comes from one-time packaging. But it’s hard trying to be a conscious recycler after a while because of the double or triple wrappings for every product.
(PHOTOS: China’s Electronic Waste Village)
Brothers Lane, LLC (of the three brothers Christian, Patrick, and Joseph) and Christopher Pepe are hoping to solve that problem and save the environment as well as consumer health. Their new grocery shop in.gredients will sell 100% package-free products. This means shoppers have to think ahead and bring their own containers. (The store will kindly offer disposable bags in case they forget.) The store plans to sell everything regular grocery stores do—grains, seasonal produce, spices, daily products, meat, beer, wine and cleaning materials—minus the junk food.
(PHOTOS: Garbage is Good: Recycling in America)
“Truth be told, what’s normal in the grocery business isn’t healthy for consumers or the environment,” in.gredients co-founder Christian Lane said. “In addition to the unhealthiness associated with common food processing, nearly all the food we buy in the grocery store is packaged, leaving us no choice but to continue buying packaged food that’s not always reusable or recyclable.
In.gredients plans to open in October, if they meet their fundraising goals.