Is a supermarket without plastic packaging coming to a location near you?

Some small zero-waste grocery stores already exist, and while the shift to no packaging isn’t easy, there’s no reason it isn’t technically possible today. The need to package some foods in typical plastic—for food safety, or to help food last longer and prevent food waste—can be achieved with compostable materials made from things like plant starch or even food waste itself. One company, for example, uses bacteria to turn food or crop waste into a packaging material called PHA. The product is food-safe, compostable, and if it happens to end up in the ocean, it degrades to become fish food. The packaging will be no more expensive than standard plastic made from fossil fuels.