New 'Zero-Waste' Grocery Store Pops Up In Morristown

MORRISTOWN, NJ — Sabrina may not have ever started a zero-waste market in Morristown if not for coronavirus lockdown boredom. She spent plenty of time baking while stuck at home, and then she noticed something: much of the ingredients she needed came in bulk and-or left her with wasteful packaging.

Now Sabrina, who wished to be identified by first name only, has less time on her hands. She's a full-time supply chain professional, and the Morristown resident also recently opened the Zero to 180 Market.

Sabrina saw zero-waste markets in the United Kingdom, Portugal and South Africa. She even found some as close as Brooklyn and Jersey City. But she never saw anything like it in Morristown. And that truly hit home for her during the pandemic.

"You want to support businesses. However, you also get all this plastic," Sabrina said. "It’s hurting the environment, but it’s helping the business. So it’s kind of like, what do you do?"

The market had a soft opening Friday at 6 Dehart St. The pop-up shop, which will operate there for a year, feels more like a hole-in-the-wall than a market. But the shop sports a unique layout with food and wellness products spread throughout a few small rooms.

Here's how it works: customers can purchase containers or bring their own — they also offer compostable bags. Funnels are available to help people dispense products such as spices, flours, dried fruit and Italy-imported pasta.

Customers can take any amount. And in the spring, Sabrina hopes to work with local gardens and farms to get fresh produce and dairy products.

Then there's the wellness room, which offers products many might have never heard of. For instance, the "coconut scrubbie" acts as a waste-free sponge, lasting six to 12 months before biodegrading. Products also include laundry detergent sheets — which look like small, thick pieces of paper — along with shampoo bars, bamboo Q-tips and biodegradable tampons and pads.

According to Sabrina, shoppers saved 4,477 packaging and single-use wastes in the store's first weekend.

"I want people to see how easy this lifestyle is and how impactful it can be," she said.

After a year on Dehart Street, Sabrina hopes to find a bigger permanent home for Zero to 180 Market. But she hopes to see stores like it in more communities.

New Jersey is cracking down on a certain type of waste. Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law Nov. 4 a ban on single-use plastic and paper bags in businesses. The law goes into effect May 2022. But Sabrina thinks that's only the beginning in waste-free living.

"That I think is the first step," she said. "But as a country that’s quite developed, we should be quite far from there. (The store) gives us the opportunity to show people there’s more to do than just not use plastic bags."

When working toward a better environment, Sabrina also thinks about her young nieces and nephews.

"The world is literally burning," she said. "We have wildfires, the ice caps are melting, hurricanes are getting worse. But seeing them and seeing them not having a bright future, we can really turn it around if we really try."

Saving the world can be daunting, she admitted, especially when comparing the waste of a corporation versus one person. For instance, Coca-Cola, Mars, Nestle and Dadone are responsible for 6 million metric tons of plastic waste each year, according to a report the Ellen MacArthur Foundation published last year.

The world has made more than 9 billion tons of plastic since 1950, and only 9 percent ended up recycled, according to a study published in Science Advances in 2017.

But Sabrina has an optimistic view: if humans can produce that much waste in a lifetime, think about how much they could turn it around in the span.

"It starts with understanding as an individual the impact a store makes," she said.

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