Here’s the reduce/reuse/recycle analysis of this week’s grocery shopping:

• Coffee, walnuts, rice – from the bulk foods section, using reused bags brought from home
• Produce – mostly loose, with the exception of mesclun lettuce mix, in a reused bag brought from home
• Milk – in returnable glass bottles
• Eggs – local eggs packaged in a reused carton. When the carton is empty, I will take it back to the co-op and it will be used yet again.
• Canned tomatoes – three cans, they will be recycled
• chocolate bar (hey, it’s full of anti-oxidants) – in paper wrapping, it will be recycled
• Cheese – in plastic wrap which I don’t believe can be recycled

That’s not too bad. Unfortunately, the local food analysis comes in a lot worse. The milk, eggs, and cheese are all from local producers. Nothing else is.  I did, however, pick up a couple of non-grocery reused items on my shopping trip. A visit to the thrift store resulted in a new-to-me shirt and pair of socks, and at the co-op I picked up some previously-read magazines from the “free magazines” box. When I am done reading them, I’ll return them to the co-op, or I may save them for collage projects.