- The Realm Refillery store in Northeast Portland sells package-free pantry items, body care products, fresh produce, bulk yogurt, kimchi and vegan deli meats. Kristine de Leon, The Oregonian/OregonLiveKristine de Leon, The Oregonian/

Garbage is inevitable in most stores. Even bulk-food and produce aisles are lined with rolls of thin, clingy plastic bags.

At The Realm Refillery in Northeast Portland, however, shopping for food and everyday household items works a little differently.

The package-free store, which opened on May 20 at 2310 N.E. Broadway, is one of a handful of new vendors around Portland that specialize in selling foods and household goods minus all the extraneous packaging. The aim is to reduce the stores’ supply chain and in-store waste while running a profitable business to meet the needs of eco-conscious shoppers.

“We try to put importance and precedence on supporting our local producers and that we can teach people while they shop here that they can eat seasonally and still eat all the things that they like,” said Ryan Knowles, who co-owns The Realm Refillery with partner Brittany Snipes. “We all need to learn how to reduce our waste and how easy it can be and how affordable buying in bulk can be, too.”

At the Realm Refillery, shoppers can find an impressive array of bulk bins with pantry staples like grains, beans, flours, coffee, tea, vital wheat gluten and textured vegetable protein. Consumers can also find snacks like granola, dried fruits, peanut butter pretzels, as well as backpacking dried meals, in bulk.

- The Realm Refillery store in Northeast Portland sells package-free pantry items, body care products, fresh produce, bulk yogurt, kimchi and vegan deli meats. Kristine de Leon, The Oregonian/OregonLiveKristine de Leon, The Oregonian/

The small produce section offers only locally-grown foods in season, such as zucchinis, cucumbers, garlic scapes, among others. While not totally package-free, the few items that are packaged — such as vegan cheese blocks — come in compostable or reusable packaging. The shop also provides customers with free compostable paper bags, or various sizes of glass jars for a $2 deposit that get returned to the store, sanitized, and reused.

Knowles said the store is the first of its kind in Oregon to offer a small self-serve section where customers can buy yogurt, vegan parmesan cheese, kimchi or sliced alternative deli meats in bulk.

“We’re the first store in Oregon that has been legally allowed to sell what are called ‘time and temperature controlled foods’ in a bulk setting,” he said. “Basically it’s anything that needs to be refrigerated at some temperature for a certain amount of time, or else it perishes.”

One frustration is routinely having to tell shoppers they can’t use their own containers brought from home. That’s because of an Oregon law that bans customers from bringing their own food storage containers to purchase groceries.

“It’s been really frustrating for us, as business owners, because we didn’t want to buy all these jars and then wash all these jars for people,” Knowles said. “And it doesn’t really make sense with the lifestyle, but we really wanted to be able to create this space for our community. So we’re really hoping we can change the law in a way that people can bring their own and we don’t have to buy more glass jars.”

The restriction is why many no-waste stores, like the two-location Portland business Mama & Hapa’s, have decided to only sell non-food household items.

When Ross Ching opened the first Mama & Hapa’s zero-waste store with his wife Nadia Takla, they wanted to show people that everyone can reuse and recycle everyday home goods and body care products. The couple opened their first shop at Southeast 14th Avenue and Stark Street in May 2021. The business was so well received that they opened a second location six months later at 3806 N. Mississippi Ave.

- Ross Ching, founder of the Mama & Papa's zero waste store, checks the technology he built to count the volume of product dispensed by a customer at the company's outpost on North Mississippi Avenue on June 7, 2022. Kristine de Leon, The Oregonian/OregonLiveKristine de Leon, The Oregonian/

Ching said he and his wife wanted to make zero-waste shopping more accessible to the masses.

“Part of the whole thinking behind zero-waste shops in general is we limit single-use plastic,” he said. “But the biggest issue with these kind of shops is that they’re cumbersome and expensive.”

Ching said he and his wife identified four goals to fix the experience.

First, they wanted to be able to provide containers to customers for free. To do that, the store encourages customers to donate containers, preferably glass or hardy plastic ones, with a lid.

The second goal was to make shopping at the store seamless and accessible by every customer, which meant eliminating any weighing process. So Ching found a system that would measure the volume coming out of a container. When customers come into Mama & Hapa’s, they pick up a card with a microchip that records the type and volume of product dispensed, head to one of the pumps, hold the empty container under the spout, put the card in a holder and keep a careful eye on volume while dispensing the product.

- Mama & Hapa’s zero waste store in North Portland can use the store’s smart card to track the amount of liquids dispensed for a seamless checkout at the counter. Kristine de Leon, The Oregonian/OregonLiveKristine de Leon, The Oregonian/

They also aim to keep prices close to other grocery stores.

“A lot of other zero-waste shops have this premium mentality where you’re going to make customers spend more to do good for the environment,” Ching said. “I call it the organic tax or the good for the environment tax, where people have to pay more just to do something good for the environment.”

Lastly, Ching said, he wanted to have locations near the customers. He said that’s the reason why he opened two stores only about two miles apart and near where his family lives.

“The thinking behind that is if you have to spend half a gallon of gas to get to our store and go back home, then, like what’s the point of saving a plastic bottle?” Ching said. “Ideally, we’d like every Portlander live 2-3 miles from stores like Mama & Hapa’s and so that way, they don’t have an excuse for not going to a zero-waste shop.”

The USDA’s Economic Research Service estimates that 31 percent of food is wasted at the retail and consumer levels, which corresponds to approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food.

Other major grocery chains like Kroger Co. have taken steps to reduce environmental impact and limit the generation of single-use plastic waste. The company last year launched a program to test reusable packaging at Portland-area Fred Meyer stores.

The pilot test with Loop, a zero waste retail platform championing sustainability and the circular economy, is geared to reduce the amount of single-use packaging. Participating stores have a special Loop area, where customers can buy packaged pantry staples, household cleaners and other products in reusable containers.

New Seasons Market has also boosted its efforts to reduce waste by partnering with a third-party vendor GO Box to offer reusable containers to consumers.

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