It’s well documented that I love a good rant about the pointless amount of packaging that is sent home with us with almost everything we buy. From the familiar plastic bags full of salad, apples or seeds to the ridiculous cellophane wrapped broccoli or bananas; packaging represents a huge majority of what we collect in our shopping trolleys. But in most modern supermarkets, or indeed local health or farm shops, packaging is an unavoidable side effect of being a consumer and it has catastrophic implications for our planet.

This is why I am such a huge fan of wholefood stores which allow you to bring your own reusable container and scoop up exactly how much you want straight from the source. Not only do they save on packaging, they also help to reduce food waste as you can take away exactly how much you need; rather than buying 2 kilo bag of linseed which will sit in the back of your cupboard for 6 months before you have to throw it away because you didn’t seal the plastic bag  and they now smell weird…! If I need 4 cashews for a recipe, I can just pop in and scoop ’em up. No worries!

Living in the Inner West of Sydney I am lucky enough to have an insane amount of choice of health and wholefood stores, especially in the hub of all things alternative: Newtown. This thriving suburb of Sydney is home to an array of eco, vegan and zero waste stores; including the awesome organic bulk food store Naked Foods.

Here, you can get everything from flour, nuts, seeds, dried fruit and vegan chocolate, to coconut oil, washing powder and loose spices. It’s a shop I like to call a “danger zone” because as soon as I walk inside my credit card starts to shiver in anticipation and I usually leave with enough food to feed half of Newtown! But with so much choice, and at reasonable prices, it’s easily replacing half of my usual supermarket shop.

I love that all the food tubs are labelled with the geographical source of the product, as well as easy recognizable symbols for if something is vegan, gluten free, no preservatives or GMO and if its bio dynamic.

The Naked Foods store does provide paper bags for free or you can buy glass jars and bottles for filling up on oils, but I prefer to bring my own containers so I can be lazy and put it straight in the cupboard when I get home! But, if you’re feeling particularly lazy you can also order online and let them deliver to you instead!

Now all I need to do is start cooking up some more vegan recipes with my new exciting zero waste ingredients, before my cupboard overflows and I have to upon up a bulk food store of my own!