Zero Waste Lent: An Easy Fix

Here's a pretty easy fix if you live in the East End of Pittsburgh - shop for specific items at the East End Food Co-op. You can bring reusable containers and shop in the bulk section where you pay for things by weight. They actually have a scale there where you can weigh your container and subtract that cost weight from the overall weight of your product. We put a sticker on our containers so we know the weight for the next time. Another thing you can buy at the co-op and at Whole Foods is milk in returnable glass bottles. Always remember that reusing something is better than just recycling it. Most organic milk comes in the non-recyclable containers, as in the picture on the right. This milk is also ultra-pasturized. I've met a lot of people who say they don't like organic milk because of the taste. It's not that they don't like organic milk, it's that they don't like ultra-pasturized milk - it's nearly boiled and completely sterilized. The milk on the left is raw milk from pastured cows at a local farm. Tastes amazing, is much healthier and comes in a returnable bottle. They also sell pasteurized milk in these bottles as well as 2% and buttermilk, which is amazing. Try some good cultured butter milk sometime if you've not had it. It's probably something your grandparents will remember from the farm. Just don't by the cheap stuff from the big supermarket, not good. Anyway, bring your own containers and look for the returnable dairy product containers

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