I've mentioned my or our quest to reduce plastic, especially single-use plastic, in our life. It's still ongoing, this quest, of course - and some things prove to be trickier than others.

For instance, it's fairly easy to get some things free of any packaging. There's a shop selling fairtrade coffee in Erlangen where you can bring your own container. (Not currently, as they are closed under the restrictions of the lockdown, but generally, they are there.) Oil and vinegar can be bought in a shop offering liquids from the vat, so you can get as much or as little as you want into your own bottle, very handy. Dry legumes, such as beans and lentils, and pasta are available in bulk with reasonable (or no) packaging, for reasonable prices (maybe with a little bit of searching). For fresh produce, we've been going to the market anyways, and there's unpackaged stuff in the supermarket as well, where you can bring your own nets or bags to pack it and carry it home.

Milk products were one of our main waste producers for a good while, but we've found nice Quark sold in deposit glasses, and we're getting our milk straight from the farm these days - there's a filling station, you bring your own bottle, and pump as much raw milk as you would like. Right beside that machine there's a vending machine with eggs and potatoes as well. We also found the one brand of butter that is wrapped in (special, but plastic-free) paper only. So... lots of things dealt with.

We are willing, by the way, to forego quite a few things instead of buying them plastic-wrapped; but for most of our staple daily-life things, we have sources now.

The last troublesome items on our regular shopping list are meat and fish... and decaf coffee. Meat and fish are still mostly unsolved problems, partly due to current Corona-induced hygiene restrictions, so that's something where we try to reduce the plastic consumption but accept that it is not zero just yet.

Decaf coffee is consumed more than regular coffee in our household, and the shop in Erlangen doesn't offer decaf... so we did stick with our previous solution for a while, which was a delicious, fair trade decaf packaged in the usual plastic bag. Now, though, we've found a supplier for decaf coffee beans, willing to send things in paper upon request (which is necessary due to some other weird German regulations) - selling fair trade coffee roasted by hand by himself, with lots of passion. Hooray! Plus I'm endlessly amused by the name of his shop: Dr. Kaffee's Röstorium. (We all know by now I'm easily amused, right?)

And now... I think I'll have some coffee.