LONG BEACH, Calif. — Aiming to eliminate waste, Nathan Fennacy shops at Ethikli, Long Beach’s first package-free grocery store.
Ethikli sells all items in bulk, so customers can bring their own containers from home, fill them up, weight them and pay for only what they take. For customers like Fennacy, that means he is able to fill-up his reusable containers with chocolate protein powder without creating waste.
What You Need To Know
- All items at Ethikli are package-free
- You can either bring in your own conditioner, purchase one in-store, or choose from Ethikli's free assortment of containers
- Opening the store is a dream for owner Katy Impellizzeri, who began her low-waste lifestyle a decade ago
- The offers many pantry staples, refrigerated items and household products
“At the beginning of the pandemic, everything started to be in plastic-wrapped and covered in all these packaging materials, and I just became so much more aware of the amount of waste I was creating, just by buying food,” Fennacy said.
Customers can also purchase a container or select from Ethikli’s free assortment.
Opening the store is a dream for owner Katy Impellizzeri, who began her low-waste lifestyle a decade ago.
“The planet is sick right now is what I like to say, and that’s a result of waste, of overconsumption,” Impellizzeri said.
The U.S. is the world’s biggest plastic consumer, and the pandemic created more waste with an increased need for single-use plastic.
Impellizzeri offers many pantry staples, refrigerated items and household products. Additionally, everything is vegan and ethically sourced.
“A lot of time and research goes into every single product that I bring in here, to make sure there’s no child labor, there’s no forced labor, everyone along the supply chain is paid fair, living wages,” Impellizzeri said.
As a vegan, Fennacy’s lifestyle is made that much easier by stores like Ethikli. He said the driving force behind living plant-based — and low waste — is from growing up in Yosemite Valley and seeing the effects of climate change.
“Waking up and its super cold, and there’d be ice on the windows, and that doesn’t happen anymore, just because temperatures are changing so it’s been very prevalent, to me in my mind, always noticing like, small changes make a big impact on the environment,” Fennacy said.
Providing the opportunity for the community to make a difference through sustainability.