Where to buy unpackaged organic fruits & vegetables?

Question

Most organic produce comes heavily packaged. What are the options to buy organic produce unpackaged? Please note that this question is not just about avoiding plastic but any kind of packaging as much as feasible.

Answer 1

There are many organic veg box delivery companies in the UK. If and to what extent the veg box contents can be customised, varies from one company to another. The produce is mostly unpackaged and delivered in one or more boxes (often cardboard) which are expected to be picked up by the driver on the next delivery and reused by the company.

Items can usually be bought in addition to the veg box, but these may come in different type of packaging.

I've been trialling two of the bigger companies, Riverford and Abel & Cole, and have created the table below for the product packaging for each item I had delivered in Jan-May 2019, both as part of a veg box or ordered in addition to the veg box. I'll continue to update this table with more products as I continue.

Riverford boxes come open while Abel & Cole boxes come closed and tied with a string.

Boxes of both contain paper marketing material, like recipes & news. There is no option to disable these on either website. Abel & Cole boxes sometimes contain (possibly unwanted) promotional gifts.

When ordering outside of a box, each Riverford product comes individually packaged in paper bags and then put in a box. Abel & Cole puts the items unpackaged in a box if there are enough items to make a box, otherwise puts them in a paper bag.

Riverford recycling guide: https://www.riverford.co.uk/aboutus/environment-ethics/how-green-are-we/recycling-guide

Abel & Cole recycling guide: https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/blog/post/the-only-way-is-up(date), https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/help/faq

Item	Riverford (as part of box)	Abel & Cole (as part of box)	Riverford (in addition to box)	Abel & Cole (in addition to box)
Butternut squash	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Clementine	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Beech netting	Unpackaged
Courgette	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Paper bag	Unpackaged
Beetroot	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Paper bag	Unpackaged
Pepper	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Paper bag	Unpackaged or Paper bag
Pear	Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Paper bag	Unpackaged
Pineapple	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Banana	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Apple	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Leek	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Broccoli	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
White onion	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Cucumber		Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Fennel		Unpackaged	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Red onion		Unpackaged	Beech netting	Unpackaged
Celery		Unpackaged	Plastic bag	Unpackaged
Swede		Unpackaged
Spring onion		Unpackaged
Cabbage		Unpackaged
Aubergine		Unpackaged
Potato	Paper bag	Unpackaged
Carrot	Unpackaged	Unpackaged or Biodegradable plastic bag	Paper bag	Biodegradable plastic bag
Cauliflower	Unpackaged		Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Spring green	Unpackaged	Plastic bag
Sweet potato	Unpackaged
Lettuce	Unpackaged
Orange	Unpackaged	Unpackaged
Avocado			Paper bag	Unpackaged
Mango			Paper bag	Unpackaged
Pomegranate				Unpackaged
Garlic				Unpackaged or Paper bag
Lemon		Unpackaged	Beech netting	Unpackaged or Paper bag
Ginger		Paper bag	Beech netting	Paper bag
Strawberry		Paper punnet
Apricot		Paper punnet
Nectarine		Paper bag
Grape	Paper punnet
Tomato	Paper punnet	Paper punnet	Plastic punnet	Paper punnet
Mushroom	Paper punnet	Plastic punnet
Purple sprouting broccoli	Plastic bag	Plastic bag
Spinach	Plastic bag	Plastic bag
Kale	Plastic bag	Plastic bag
Parsley			Plastic bag	Plastic bag
Sweet pepper			Plastic bag	Plastic bag
Water cress			Plastic bag	Plastic bag
Mini cucumber		Plastic punnet
Rosemary				Plastic bag
Thyme				Plastic bag
Dill				Plastic bag
Asparagus		Unpackaged