Best UK Zero Waste Groceries & Sustainable Supermarkets
Our mission at Zero Wasted is to help you make more informed decisions when trying to buy more consciously - we do all the research so you don't have to. We sometimes use affiliate links on our site. We only recommend products we love, that we think you will too.
In this shopping guide, we look at where you can buy the best sustainable groceries with less single-use plastic waste that comes with mainstream supermarkets.
From organic fruit and veg boxes to zero waste refills we've hunted high and low to find the very best online zero waste supermarkets and ethical grocery shops in the UK. Here are 3 key reasons to give them a try:
- Environmental Impact: Zero waste supermarkets and sustainable grocery stores prioritise reducing waste often offering package-free or bulk options, allowing you to refill your own containers. Additionally, these stores often source products from local and sustainable suppliers, further reducing carbon emissions associated with transportation.
- Healthier Choices: Zero waste and sustainable stores tend to prioritise organic, locally sourced, and minimally processed products. They often offer a wide selection of fresh produce, whole foods, and organic alternatives to conventional products.
- Supporting Local Economy: Zero waste and sustainable stores often collaborate with local farmers, artisans, and small businesses. By purchasing from them, you directly support the local economy and contribute to the prosperity of local communities. This helps create a more resilient and sustainable food system that benefits everyone involved.
Each store listed below will have their own unique offerings and initiatives, so it's worth exploring different options to find the one that aligns best with your values and needs.
DID YOU KNOW
UK families throw away over 10,000 pieces of single use plastic a year
Sadly, only 10% of the plastic in our green bins is actually recycled, so making the switch to groceries with less waste is a great way to make lasting and consistent change to our plastic waste.
The Sustainable Groceries Checklist
REDUCING WASTE
Stores must show innovation and commitment in removing, reducing or reusing packaging and single-use plastic.
ETHICAL
Food that is ethically and sustainably produced and from from reputable sources, including vegan and organic options.
QUALITY & SERVICE
Groceries must have a proven track record providing high quality produce with excellent customer service.
Best Sustainable & Zero Waste Groceries
1. Yoyo Grocery Co
Best place to buy bulk food online
Yoyo provide fantastic food in reusable packaging that’s simple to return. They are Organic Certified and deliver nationwide. You'll receive your food in fabric bags and liquids in plastic pouches.
Once you’re done, simply pop them in the postbox for free to be washed and reused. The powders come in Kraft paper bags which are 100% recyclable but they’re working on a reusable solution for those too! Yoyo Grocery Co are your go to place if you're looking for bulk and zero waste groceries in the UK.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✗
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✗
🥫Pantry: ✓
🍞 Bakery: ✓ (ingredients)
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✓ (hot drinks)
🍷 Alcohol: ✗
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✗
📦 Kits / ready meals: ✗
UK Delivery: from £1 / Free £60+
2. Riverford Organic
Best for home compostable packaging
Organic, seasonal fruit and veg boxes and all your grocery essentials. Riverford Organic use thoughtful compostable bags and reusable boxes so nothing even needs to be binned, or even be recycled! They are a B Corp, Soil Association Certified organic, employee owned, and voted in the UK's 100 best large companies to work for in 2021. They also don't air freight any produce and as much of their range is as homegrown as possible.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✓ (limited)
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✓ (organic)
🥫Pantry: ✗
🍞 Bakery: ✓
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✗
🍷 Alcohol: ✓ (Christmas)
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✓ (limited vegan)
📦 Kits / ready meals: Fruit & veg boxes, Recipe boxes & kits
UK Delivery: FREE or up to £2.50 (depending on location)
Discount: Try Riverford, and get £15 off your second order with our referral link
3. Earth & Wheat
Best for Wonky Bread & Veg Boxes
Earth & Wheat are the world's first Wonky Bread Boxes (and Bread & Veg boxes) containing ultra-fresh wonky and surplus bakery and veg produce rescued at the point of production (where one third of the world's food is wasted). We tried the Variety Bread Box which contained 2 garlic coriander naan, 6 buttermilk pancakes, 5 crumpets, 16 mini white pittas, 6 folded flat breads and 6 mediterranean herb tortillas. Each type of bread is wrapped in a home compostable bag that can be popped straight in the freezer. For every box ordered one meal donated to UK food charities and they also do wonky veg boxes.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✗
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✓
🥫Pantry: ✗
🍞 Bakery: ✓
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✗
🍷 Alcohol: ✗
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✗
📦 Kits / ready meals: Bread boxes, Bread & Veg boxes
UK Delivery: FREE
Discount: £3 off your first order with our referral (automatically applies at checkout)
4. Abel & Cole
Best all-rounder for zero waste groceries
No longer just organic fruit and veg boxes, they also offer all the weekly essentials for the fridge, pantry and household. You can even filter everything by diet or lifestyle. They are a certified B Corp, Soil Association Certified organic, never use air freight and sustainability is at the top of their agenda. You can even opt for fruit and veg boxes that have only seasonal and UK produce and absolutely zero packaging.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✓
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✓ (organic)
🥫Pantry: ✓
🍞 Bakery: ✓
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✓
🍷 Alcohol: ✓
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✓
📦 Kits / ready meals: Fruit & veg boxes, Ready meals
UK Delivery: £1.99 (carbon neutral)
Discount: 50% OFF your 1st and 4th box with VEGBOX50
5. Oddbox
Best for wonky fruit + veg box
As much as 40% of food produced globally is wasted, leading to the loss of water and energy used in its production. Oddbox fights food waste by delivering deliciously odd fruits and vegetables, prioritising local growers, and using fully recyclable boxes. At the end of each week, any extra produce is donated to FareShare, which redistributes it to charities and community groups. So far, Oddbox has donated the equivalent of 1,967,526 meals. Oddbox is also a Certified B Corp.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✗
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✓
🥫Pantry: ✗
🍞 Bakery: ✗
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✗
🍷 Alcohol: ✗
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✗
📦 Kits / ready meals: Fruit & veg boxes
UK Delivery: FREE
Discount: 50% OFF your 1st box with 50FIRSTBOX
6. Forrist
Best for organic pantry refills
Forrist is the UK’s first online plant-based supermarket where everything is organic and all packaging is compostable or reusable. Get free jars with their Back to the Forrist scheme, along with Free Forrist Essentials which includes a menstrual cup and shaving oil. When the Forrist pantry produce reaches best before they avoid any food waste with by offering discounted Magic Bags via the Too Good To Go app.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✗
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✗
🥫Pantry: ✓
🍞 Bakery: ✓ (ingredients)
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✓ (hot drinks)
🍷 Alcohol: ✗
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✗
📦 Kits / ready meals: Subscription Boxes, Seasoning Collections
Delivery: £5 or FREE over £45
Discount: 25% off your first order with ZEROWASTED25
7. The Modern Milkman
Best for vegan food + cheeses
The Modern Milkman is all about convenience with a conscience. To bring you everything you need whilst reducing plastic waste. They offer lots of household essentials, like eggs, fruit juice, bread, butter, veg and milk, plus a plant-based oat milk option! Their bakery and sweet treats are the perfect addition to a weekend doorstep delivery. They've recently introduced household items and cereal refills, and they're a certified Ⓑ corp! All drinks come in returnable glass bottles and any packaging that isn't reusable is plastic free, recyclable or home compostable.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✓
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✓
🥫Pantry: ✓ (limited)
🍞 Bakery: ✓
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✓
🍷 Alcohol: ✗
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✓
📦 Kits / ready meals: ✗
Delivery: 3 delivery days per week (minimum spend for free delivery or a small fee that varies depending on location)
Discount:
20% off your first 4 weeks of deliveries with
GOECOZERO20
8. Milk & More
Best for plastic free milk (inc. non-dairy)
Championing small sustainable suppliers alongside their zero waste milk deliveries they now delivery over 200 products to your doorstep before 7am. You can filter by lifestyle ranges including vegan, organic, zero waste and plastic free. They've also partnered with Dizzie (Good Club) to add more range to their zero waste pantry refills.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✓
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✓ (organic)
🥫Pantry: ✓
🍞 Bakery: ✓
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✓
🍷 Alcohol: ✗
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✓
📦 Kits / ready meals: Fruit & veg boxes
Delivery: FREE delivery
Discount: Get £5 off your first order with
RZ3ZGL
9. Social Supermarket
Best for supporting Social Enterprise
Social Supermarket is the leading social enterprise marketplace and certified B Corp. You can buy hampers, food and drink from purpose-driven brands that put more back into communities and the planet than it takes to create their products. They call this the positive ripple effect. It's the perfect place to find gifts for foodie lovers.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✗
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✗
🥫Pantry: ✓
🍞 Bakery: ✓ (not fresh)
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✓
🍷 Alcohol: ✓
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✗
📦 Kits / ready meals: Build Your Own Gift Hamper
UK Delivery: Varies (marketplace) / Free £70+
10. Ethical Superstore
Best for mainstream ethical brands
Ethical superstore offer a variety of everyday groceries from well known fair trade, organic and ethical brands. They also have a huge range of products from home and garden, beauty, fashion and pets.
🌱 Vegan, organic and gluten-free options: ✓
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✗
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✗
🥫Pantry: ✓
🍞 Bakery: ✓ (ingredients)
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✓
🍷 Alcohol: ✗
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✗
📦 Kits / ready meals: Ready meals
Delivery: £3.95 or FREE over £50
11. Planet Organic
Best for organic all-rounder
The UK's first fully certified organic supermarket. They offer a range of food and drink and a dedicated plastic free range including organic seasonal fruit and veg boxes. All items are delivered using sustainable packaging. You can also shop for household items, health and wellbeing products and natural skincare and beauty.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✓
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✓ (organic)
🥫Pantry: ✓
🍞 Bakery: ✓
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✓
🍷 Alcohol: ✓
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✓
📦 Kits / ready meals: Fruit & veg boxes, ready meals
Delivery: £5.00 or FREE over £50
12. Big Barn
Best for local food
Shop local, seasonal fresh food from over 600 local producers online with Big Barn. They also track over 8,800 outlets that produce the freshest locally produced food and drink in your area. Use the Big Barn Local Food Map to find producers near you.
❄️ Fresh & Chilled: ✓
🥬 Fruit & Veg: ✓
🥫Pantry: ✓
🍞 Bakery: ✓
☕ Hot & Cold Drinks: ✓
🍷 Alcohol: ✓
🥛 Dairy & Dairy Alternatives: ✗
📦 Kits / ready meals: Recipe boxes, fruit & veg boxes
Delivery: Different for each merchant
That's our ultimate list of the best zero waste and sustainable online grocery stores in the UK. If there's a great brand you think we should feature, drop us a message.
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