No matter where you live, what you do, or how old you are, you’ll likely spend at least one day shopping at the supermarket, weekdays and weekends. And once the big dilemma arises: How to get it home? brick How much milk, fruit, yogurt, cereal, and other foods do you stock in your refrigerator or pantry? It may seem like a small issue, but the decision involves considerations like whether it’s most comfortable for you, what’s best for the planet, or whether you want to hoard more bags at home (and make sure they’re made of plastic or paper). or raffia.

There are people who have found an alternative and very practical way to solve this dilemma: loading their purchases into supermarkets’ own cardboard boxes.

“I see for the first time”. Long time ago tik toker Marta Escalante shared her trick for carrying her purchases in a viral video that’s just 40 seconds long. And the young woman explained that she did so because of the confused look on the supermarket cashier’s face when she applied it. “I’m leaving Mercadona and the cashier says to me: ‘Wow, how weird! How do you carry your shopping there?'” Escalante said, focusing her cell phone on a milk carton full of items she had just compared.

That’s the key. Their tactic is to forego plastic, paper, raffia or fabric bags and load produce directly into one of the disposable bins at the supermarket. It seems like a logical solution, but Escalante explains that the cashier who served him at the Mercadona admitted to seeing him for the first time. And it had been working for years. “Let me tell you: every box in a supermarket… what I do is I put my purchases in there.”

“I do this a lot too”. To the employee’s surprise, Escalante isn’t the only one using cardboard boxes to take home his purchases. There are people admitting to doing this in the comments of your video. Some even state that it is more or less “normal” to see this in other supermarket chains.

“Carrefour has an area where boxes are placed so you can take them with your purchases,” adds another user. Some mention other chains spread across the country, such as Bielsa, Lidl, Aldi or Makro. If it is common for packaged goods such as milk or cookies to be displayed on certain surfaces in boxes used by the supermarket itself, the use of cardboard boxes will help.

The cardboard box trick also has its limitations. There are more traditional and probably more comfortable options, such as trolleys on wheels. Escalante recognizes that boxes are especially useful for impromptu purchases, where the customer leaves the supermarket with only a few items—more or less items that can fit into a traditional plastic or paper bag.

Is it common in other countries? There are people in the comment thread for Escalante’s video who point out that the orderly transportation of groceries in cardboard boxes is already common in other parts of Europe. And they specifically mention France and Germany. On forums about other countries they explain that you can buy reusable bags, paper or cardboard boxes in supermarkets, and that it is recommended to go from home to workplaces with bags. Without going any further, British supermarket chain Morrison Supermarkets has reintroduced free and clearly visible cardboard boxes in its stores so customers can carry their purchases inside.

Options to choose from. Supermarket boxes, like the Hacendado cardboard container with plastic handles that Escalante shows in her video, aren’t the only alternative to plastic bags for carrying groceries. There are paper, raffia or cloth bags. There are cars. There are also containers that the customer can take from home to carry products from the deli or grocery store.

Royal Decree 1055/2022 on packaging is clear on this matter: “All food businesses selling food and drink in bulk must accept the use of reusable containers (inter alia bags, containers, bottles) that are appropriate to the nature of the product purchased and have been sterilized.” Consumers are responsible for their air conditioning and cleaning.

But the rule clarifies that businesses can reject customers’ containers if they find they are “obviously dirty or unsuitable.”

An important dilemma. Deciding how to take our groceries home is no small matter. In fact, it’s so relevant that years ago the Government drafted a royal decree to end the pub’s ban on plastic bags and force businesses to charge a small fee for them. Purpose: To stop the proliferation of waste that harms ecosystems.

Consumption-driven data shows that before the measure was adopted in 2008, around 300 single-use plastic bags were consumed per person per year in Spain. In 2017, this volume had already decreased by 60%; However, a recent study by Change Markets and Berak Free From Plastic warns that supermarkets are still “clearly” failing to tackle plastic pollution.

Image | Eroski S.Coop Group (Flickr)

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