Oak Park’s wonderful Farmers Market is underway with fresh produce, flowers and other treats. If you stopped at the Go Plastic Free table during Go Green Days, you would have seen all the ways you could be plastic “freer.” Here are some of them:
Green up your shopping experience all summer long. Start by bringing your non-disposable bags to avoid taking away new plastic bags, and reuse those you do accumulate, such as bread bags.
If you’re buying crushable fruits and vegetables, such as berries and tomatoes, bring your own containers, like the clamshell plastic containers that some supermarket produce now often comes in. Return vendors’ containers on your next market visit so they can be reused; this also helps cut vendors’ costs.
At the market, sort your recycling, composting, and trash into the appropriate containers, and aim to divert as much landfill-bound stuff as possible.
Finally, ask the Farmers Market Commission to encourage, and eventually require, vendors to use sustainable packaging. Let vendors know you care about this. And thank and support those who’ve made the switch from single-use plastic to compostable containers.
For more ideas for greening your home, your shopping, and your life, look for our table during Plastic-Free July.
See you there with your reusable grocery bags.
Phyllis Rubin
River Forest
Co-leader, Go Plastic Free
