Green Leaf Report

As part of my quest to reduce my environmental footprint, I recently visited a nearby Costco, and was disappointed.  I’ve never been a member at the warehouse giant, but I’m trying to reduce the amount of packaging I purchase with my dry goods, and my theory was that if I buy in larger bulk sizes, I can incrementally reduce the amount of packaging required over the longer term.

The disappointment came as I roamed the aisles, and realized that none of my preferred environmental brands of Seventh Generation, Method, etc. were stocked. I read labels, looked for other brands or off-brands that had the same environmental principals or ingredients, but ended up walking out of the store empty-handed. I couldn’t find products, such as toilet paper, made from post-consumer recycled paper; there were no chlorine free diapers; the staples I saw were the same ones I avoid at other stores.  What a shame to have wasted the gas; I couldn’t make myself buy more of a less environmentally-friendly product just to have a small decrease in packaging. I visited the Costco website before I visited the store and was unable to find product details- I guess it’s possible that different branches of the store stock more or less environmentally-friendly options, but I won’t drive around to find out.