Well, it is the truth and you know it: in the supermarket, whatever the supermarket shelves (above all, the cookies’ one ;-)), in front of the abundance of product references available, our hand is often self-oriented toward the individual portions. And yes, our “practical side” is talking: perfect capacity, easy to carry… We are sure to make the right choice! However, our bank account and our lovely planet are not really okay with that…
A little portion that costs a lot to our purse…
The French family foundation has conducted a survey. Smallest serving sizes cost on average twice as much as family packs. This difference may vary from 10% to 97%! Gloops… For instance, our favourite marble cake is 53% more expensive in individual pack than in standard format; regarding the price per kilo, the difference is approximately 3,18€. When we talk about soups in carton pack, we can double the price from one size to the other! Finally, “little but strong”, these small servings are costly, and that for exactly the same product! This trend is rising with an increase in the gap between these two types of servings of more than 4 points in 4 years.
…and to our lovely nature.
It seems obvious, single servings need twice more packaging than family servings. So, each single year, French people throw 100 billion of packaging away and only 52% are recycled. Theses facts transform our addiction to the “little and cute” straight away less pleasant…
Alternatives?
As the French family foundation reminds us, the idea is not to ban all individual servings but to tailor our purchases to our lifestyle. The goal is not to fall in the opposite extreme and waste food bought in too large quantities!
At monbento, we decided to lead a little revolution: for all the products we use everyday, we challenge ourselves to resist to the appeal of smallest serving sizes. We must state that, we have everything on hand to keep it easy :):
– For our sweet snacks: some cookies or cake slices in the MB Gram box and voila! As if it was in a single pack, our nosh is well protected from the air and can be carried easily, without taking so much space or leaving any crumbs in the bottom of our handbag. Additional benefit: it doesn’t end as flat as a pancake, crushed by all our stuff!
– For drinks, our ally is the MB Positive bottle! Ok, we have to fill it and wash it (approximately 3 min if we are really meticulous!). But leaving that aside, there are not particular changes in comparison to our little bottle of mineral water or juice box.
– We can even get along without little yogurt or fruit compote pots by opting for large volumes and transferring the quantity needed in the MB Tresor food cup or in the MB Temple L sauce cup!
Finally, each problem has a solution, right?
Sources:http://www.agirpourlenvironnement.org/pdf/guideemballage.pdf
http://www.familles-de-france.org/sites/default/files/DP_2015-2016_enquete-format.pdf