• Hard 2 Recycle
  • About
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Staff/ Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Internships
    • Make a Donation
    • Sponsorship
    • Volunteer
    • Wish List
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • 10th Anniversary Yearlong Pollination Celebration
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Pollinator Gardens & Meadows Project
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Trash Trout
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
  • Silent Auction
  • Upcoming Events
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Benefit Concert
  • Blog Roll
    • Latest News
    • Mind Your Plastic May
    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees
ASHEVILLE GREENWORKS
  • Hard 2 Recycle
  • About
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Staff/ Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Internships
    • Make a Donation
    • Sponsorship
    • Volunteer
    • Wish List
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • 10th Anniversary Yearlong Pollination Celebration
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Pollinator Gardens & Meadows Project
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Trash Trout
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
  • Silent Auction
  • Upcoming Events
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Benefit Concert
  • Blog Roll
    • Latest News
    • Mind Your Plastic May
    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees
Picture
Do you ever find yourself at the French Broad River staring at piles of plastic litter wondering what you can do to stop this?  Asheville GreenWorks and our sister page, Going Plastic Free, are here to help you make this happen! Mind Your Plastic May is a month-long campaign to inform you about the grave social and environmental harms that ensue from plastic waste and equip you with the knowledge to reduce plastic in your own life.  

All month long, we will be sharing plastic reduction tips, volunteer opportunities to address plastic waste, educational materials featuring local Asheville businesses, and much more. We aim to foster knowledge and encourage mindfulness around plastic consumption and disposal for individuals and business owners. This month, we hope you will follow us on Facebook and Instagram, where you will gain valuable knowledge about how to refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle plastics, as well as learn about local waste reduction efforts.

Join our 
Race2Reduce and commit to decreasing your plastic usage for the entire month of May. Sign up here to join the challenge and earn points to win a $25/$50/$75 gift card to Ware!

Many thanks to the businesses and restaurants who supported this effort and are working hard to reduce their own plastic waste. #goingplasticfree

Join us in our love for the planet as we
 address and defeat our global plastic addition.
Donate now for a plastic-free future
Mind Your Plastic May is meant to encourage and challenge us in our journey to live plastic free. These posts are created by GreenWorks staff. If you've found these posts helpful and encouraging, please consider making a donation to support this work. If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

Low Waste Shopping Guide

5/9/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture
Two of the easiest places to reduce plastics are in your kitchen pantry and in your personal care routine. And that’s why you’re lucky to live in Asheville. We have many stores that offer alternatives to plastic packaging and let you bring your own containers to refill your laundry detergent, shampoo, soap, peanut butter, flour, quinoa, and SO much more. ​

Picture
According to the Bulk is Green Council, the average shopping cart of 10 plastic products refilled over a year keeps 118 pieces of packaging out of the landfill. That means, a family of 4 could eliminate 472 pieces of packaging. If every resident in Buncombe County switched to buying bulk, we could eliminate 3 million pieces of packaging from landing in our landfill. Since packaging accounts for 40 percent of all plastic produced, eliminating some (extra credit: try for all) of your packaging can drastically shrink the pile of plastic waste you create by the end of the year.

Peruse our low waste local shopping guide to find out where you can get bulk food, personal care items, and cleaning supplies. All of these places are BYOC friendly – bring your own container. Personally, I like to reuse glass jars and plastic tubs for bulk food items and cleaning items. I use old shampoo/conditioner bottles for personal care supplies, as well as old yogurt tubs! So the next time you finish up some peanut butter, be sure to hold onto that jar, so you can refill it with some delicious local granola from the French Broad Food Coop! 

Picture
Picture
A few of our refill locations in Asheville and what they specifically offer: 
  1. Our MYPM partner Ware provides many bulk personal care items (e.g., lotion/ shampoo/conditioner/soap/toothpaste tablets) and home items (e.g., laundry detergent/dish soap/cleaning spray), as well as some more fun zero plastic products. You can bring your own container or use one of Ware’s free reusable containers. 
  2.  To The Brim Refill Store also offers bath and body products, as well as cleaning products. 
  3. The French Broad Food Co-op  and West Village Market offer extensive bulk food options, including grains, nuts, flours, herbs and spices, teas and coffees, freshly ground peanut and almond butter, and more! Other grocery stores, such as Whole Foods and Hopey, also offer many bulk items. 

It’s certainly not easy to completely avoid plastic packaging, but shopping in bulk with a reusable container is one of the easiest ways to cut your plastic waste. 
​

Use our shopping guide to keep plastic packaging out of your life and off of our planet!
By Livia Charles, Sustainability Coordinator at Asheville GreenWorks 
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    AuthorS

    Staff from Asheville GreenWorks, volunteers from the Plastic Reduction Task Force, as well as other guest writers who are advocates and friends.

    Archives

    May 2022
    May 2021
    May 2020
    May 2019
    April 2019

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed


​Asheville GreenWorks is a 501(c)3 non-profit environmental organization, governed by a Board of Directors. Established in 1973, GreenWorks mission is to inspire, equip and mobilize individuals and communities to take care of the places we love to live.
  • Hard 2 Recycle
  • About
    • Job Openings
    • History
    • Staff/ Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Internships
    • Make a Donation
    • Sponsorship
    • Volunteer
    • Wish List
    • Youth Environmental Leadership Program >
      • YELP Staff & Alumni
      • How to Apply
  • Programs
    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • 10th Anniversary Yearlong Pollination Celebration
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Pollinator Gardens & Meadows Project
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
      • Tree Nursery
      • Treasured Trees >
        • Treasured Trees Calendar
    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
      • Trash Trout
    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
      • Composting Information
      • Flip Your Lid
      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
      • Recycling Information
  • Silent Auction
  • Upcoming Events
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Benefit Concert
  • Blog Roll
    • Latest News
    • Mind Your Plastic May
    • Protect our Pollinators
    • Voice for the Trees