‘Green’ grocery store lets you package your own food

Story from Living on Earth. Listen to audio above for full report.

A soon-to-be-opened Austin supermarket called In.gredients intends to create zero waste shopping in their store. Its concept will have shoppers going beyond the increasing trend of reusable grocery bags by having them bring their own containers too.

The store’s co-founder Christian Lane calls the idea ‘pre-cycling’ and says it focuses on reducing and reusing. “The products that we use and the things that we consume have resources associated to them,” he told Living on Earth. “Those resources are finite, for the most part, and we’ve got to be responsible.”

Lane hopes offering unpackaged products will make the store more competitive. Bulk-buy products currently in stores are about 30 percent less expensive because they don’t have the costs associated with packaging and waste from provisioning.

The idea for In.gredients actually began with Growlers — the half gallon glass jugs used to hold beer. “We were sitting around thinking a lot of cans and bottles [are] going to waste here, and thinking about the beer enthusiasts and the popularity of Growlers,” Lane explains. “We thought, well why not just get 30-40 really good craft beers and dispense them into people’s Growlers since they seem to be a very popular thing.”

Growlers led to the idea of kegged wine, which expanded to food. In.gredients debuts later this summer in Austin, Texas.

Read transcript of Living on Earth’s interview with Christian Lane.

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Hosted by Steve Curwood, “Living on Earth” is an award-winning environmental news program that delves into the leading issues affecting the world we inhabit. More about “Living on Earth.”