• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
The climate news that makes a difference.
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
  FEATURED
Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing January 23, 2023
Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’ January 23, 2023
Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom January 23, 2023
IRON OXIDE: New Battery Brings Long-Duration Storage to Grids, 750 Jobs to West Virginia January 23, 2023
BREAKING: GFANZ Banks, Investors Pour Hundreds of Billions into Fossil Fuels January 17, 2023
Next
Prev

Plastic-Free Food Delivery Service Launches in San Francisco

January 27, 2021
Reading time: 3 minutes

PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay

PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay

25
SHARES
 

As home grocery delivery ramps up plastic use in cities across North America, a Bay Area start-up is hoping to become the 21st century’s answer to the milk delivery company—but with a much expanded product list. 

San Francisco-based Zero Grocery is offering members 1,100-plus items delivered straight to the door with barely a whisker of plastic in sight, reports Fast Company. Everything—save meat and fish, which is packed in compostable wrappers—arrives in glass jars, which are picked up for reuse next time round. 

  • Concise headlines. Original content. Timely news and views from a select group of opinion leaders. Special extras.
  • Everything you need, nothing you don’t.
  • The Weekender: The climate news you need.
New!
Subscribe

“I wanted to make it easier for as many everyday, hardworking Americans as possible to adopt a plastic-free lifestyle,” said founder Zuleyka Strasner.  

Writing consumer ease into the contract, Zero Grocery has customers “pay US$25 a month for membership, which includes unlimited free deliveries and avoids the need to charge deposits on the glass containers.” 

At first, Strasner’s company bought its products in bulk orders from manufacturers that typically served hotels or airlines, “and then repacking the food into reusable containers,” Fast Company explains. Now, it is turning its eye on its supply chain, attempting to limit its purchasing to manufacturers that are also dedicated to a plastic-free ethos.

The advent of technology that can closely track each product through the supply chain—from producer to consumer to bottle return and processing—has made the job of food delivery infinitely easier, said Strasner. 

“The reason the milkman or the milkwoman had dwindled from about the 1970s onwards is that it was a very labour-intensive and difficult industry to run,” she said. “But there was also no transparency on who had what bottles and where product was moving, and picking it up and sanitizing it.” As each glass container is thoroughly sterilized before repacking, Strasner says customers have expressed no qualms about using her service during the pandemic. 

“Zero-waste or plastic-free grocery stores are becoming increasingly common, and it’s likely that more delivery services will follow,” notes Fast Company, pointing to a similar start-up in Brooklyn and companies like Loop that are helping manufacturers get onboard with reusable packaging. 

While  plastic is ubiquitous in today’s typical grocery cart, it is actually a newcomer on the packaging scene. “Certainly from before the 1960s, it was commonplace for nearly all items to not come in plastic,” observed Strasner. She celebrates her zero-grocery concept as a combination of the best in non-plastic packaging, combined with top-flight technology that ensures happy customers and lower waste. 

In Montreal, meanwhile, a young urban farmer is telling his story as part of a special CBC project called Out of the Dark: Real Talk on Mental Health. 

Jon Cleveland had worked as a theatre lighting designer until his job fell prey to pandemic closures. The resulting economic need, combined with his long-standing concern for the sustainability of food supply chains, led him to experiment with growing his own greens. He’s since turned that effort into BunkerGreens, a small but much appreciated web-based business delivering fresh salad mixes to local customers.

“It’s not a romantic life. It’s hard work, but it is rewarding,” said Cleveland, describing how he manages everything from planning and planting to harvesting and selling. 

“It’s been really exciting to engage with my local community by supplying fresh food that I grow and deliver personally.”



in Canada, Climate & Society, Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Demand & Distribution, Ending Emissions, Food Security & Agriculture, Health & Safety, Jurisdictions, Petrochemicals & Plastics, Supply Chains & Consumption, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

United Nations
Air & Marine

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
5
RL0919/wikimedia commons
Finance & Investment

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.1k
@tongbingxue/Twitter
Ending Emissions

Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’

January 23, 2023
263

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

RL0919/wikimedia commons

Danske Bank Quits New Fossil Fuel Financing

January 23, 2023
2.1k
@tongbingxue/Twitter

Extreme Warming Ahead Even as Worst-Case Scenarios Grow ‘Obsolete’

January 23, 2023
263
Rachel Notley/Facebook

Notley Scorches Federal Just Transition Bill as Fossil CEO Calls for Oilsands Boom

January 23, 2023
252
James Vincent Wardhaugh/flickr

Canada Sidelines Ontario’s Ring of Fire, Approves Separate Mining Project

December 4, 2022
377
Weirton, WV by Jon Dawson/flickr

IRON OXIDE: New Battery Brings Long-Duration Storage to Grids, 750 Jobs to West Virginia

January 23, 2023
492
TALL ORDER -- A field of “Freedom” giant miscanthus on Mississippi State University’s South Farm towers over research agronomist Brian Baldwin. Baldwin’s 12-year study of grassy feedstocks indicates the plant is a viable resource for biofuel production. (Photo by MSU Ag Communications/Scott Corey)

Bamboo-like Crop Could Cut U.S. Midwest Warming by 1°C

May 4, 2022
958

Recent Posts

United Nations

Salvage of $20B ‘Floating Time Bomb’ Delayed by Rising Cost of Oil Tankers

January 27, 2023
5
EcoAnalytics

Albertans Want a Just Transition, Despite Premier’s Grumbling

January 23, 2023
188
Sergio Boscaino/flickr

Dubai Mulls Quitting C40 Cities Over ‘Costly’ Climate Target

January 24, 2023
84
hangela/pixabay

New UK Coal Mine Faces Two Legal Challenges

January 24, 2023
43

Gas Stoves Enter U.S. Climate Culture War, Become ‘Bellwether’ for Industry

January 22, 2023
72
Jeff Hitchcock/flickr.

BREAKING: GFANZ Banks, Investors Pour Hundreds of Billions into Fossil Fuels

January 23, 2023
493
Next Post
KOSIN SUKHUM/Wikimedia Commons

Land Titles Empower Indigenous Peoples while Promoting Forest Conservation

The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Copyright 2023 © Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Proudly partnering with…

scf_withtagline
No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}