Unpackaged.U商店 – Zero Waste Shop Review

Taipei has a zero waste store and I finally got to go visit! ? ?

So, What is a Zero Waste Store?

Back in the good ol’ days, living a life before plastic, it was actually pretty normal to buy your goods in bulk. It was pretty normal to just roll up, weigh out your goods and bag ’em yourself. Rice, pasta, beans, veggies, oils, etc… Everything in bulk and no packaging to have to deal with when you got back home.

Nowadays though, all packaging is cheap. I mean really cheap!  As a result, everything is bagged, double bagged and sometimes triple bagged. Single apples – bagged. Single bananas – bagged, cakes – bagged, biscuits, tea, coffee, dry goods, wet goods, everything bagged. Sounds familiar, right?

So this is what zero waste stores are all about. A return to the good old days when we didn’t have to deal with all the plastic packaging.

My First Visit

If you have ever lived in Asia before, you would be forgiven for thinking that perhaps this is another gimmick store. Designed to take advantage of the fashionable Western “zero waste” food trend. I was expecting to find overpriced foods that can be bough for a fraction of the price at the local store.

Thankfully, this wasn’t the case. Although the selection is still quite limited, I did find quite a lot of good value product. It was very well laid out and the store owner Max, was very helpful. I stocked up on olive oil, rice, herbs and some beans.

Of course, I brought my own containers, which earned me some points which I can use for discounts on my next visit.

Hurry Up and Go!

I wish these guys the best of luck because stores like these are essential to help educate and wean people from their plastic addiction. I hope also that he can be successful and grow this business into more stores across Taipei.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.