How to store produce without plastic

In 2025, to reduce plastic waste California stopped providing plastic produce bags in the fruit and vegetable section of the grocery store. They have since been replaced by compostable bags or paper bags. 

Ever since plastic bags left the produce aisle, I’ve been asked about the best way to store produce without plastic bags when you get home. Friends have questioned whether the compostable bags provided by the store, while good at getting your groceries home, are the best choice for storing them in your fridge. Presumably they thought I’d have a take since CALPIRG supported the effort to get plastic produce bags and plastic carryout bags out of stores in the state. 

Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it very much. I usually default to keeping my produce loose in the produce drawers of the fridge. 

But the more I’ve experienced wilted carrots or browning lettuce, I decided it was time to look into this question further. Especially because I want to avoid throwing away food if I could keep it fresher longer.  

Our country wastes far too much food. 133 billion pounds per year gets wasted. That’s 30% of the country’s food supply and one-fifth of all our garbage. Most of this wasted food ends up dumped into landfills or burned in trash incinerators.  

Inspired to keep my food fresher longer and help reduce food waste, I decided it was due time for a little experiment to figure out the best way to store produce without plastic bags. 

Of course, different fruits and vegetables will react differently in different storage containers. Some benefit from air tight containers while others benefit from some air. But to avoid filling up my fridge with things I may not get to eating, I decided to keep my experiment small and just start with the vegetable I find wilts quickly in my fridge- carrots. 

I bought a bunch of organic carrots at my local grocery store. From the bunch, I put one carrot in each of the following storage containers. 

• Glass container with a silicone lid 
• Mesh nylon bag with a string tie 
• Cloth bag with a string tie 
• The compostable produce bag provided in the produce section of the store 
• Loose in the vegetable drawer of my fridge 

From left to right: a carrot stored in a glass container, mesh nylon bag, cloth bag, compostable bag, loose without storage, and loose without storage and leafy top intactPhoto by Staff | TPIN

I read that removing the leafy part of the carrots helps them stay fresher longer (the leafy part sucks up the moisture from the carrot), so I did that for each. And to confirm it really works, I kept one with the leafy part intact and put it loose in the vegetable drawer to compare to the other loose carrot without the leafy part. 

I checked on my carrots after five days, and here’s what I discovered 

• The carrot stored in the glass container hadn’t wilted at all. 
• The carrot in the compostable bag was next best, with some minimal wilting 
• The carrot in the mesh nylon bag also had minimal wilting, thought a little more than the compostable bag
• The carrot in the cloth bag was pretty wilty, about as much as the carrot that was put in the vegetable drawer loose. 
• Finally, the loose carrot with the leafy greens intact was by far the most wilted, so it does indeed make an impact to remove the leafy part right away. 

My takeaway is that carrots benefit from being stored in an air tight container, and my glass container worked the best. And removing the leafy part helps carrots stay fresher longer. Rather than toss the leafy carrot tops, use them to make chimichurri or carrot top pesto. 

I also discovered that putting my wilted carrots in ice water for thirty minutes hardened them back up. 

Again, this was the case for carrots, but a glass container may not be the best storage for all produce. You could try my experiment with your favorite fruits and vegetables, or read these tips from the Zero Waste Chef or Good Housekeeping. A couple of basic tips include: only buy what you need, buy the freshest produce possible from farmers markets or grocery stores that sell locally, don’t wash your produce before storing, and keep your fruits and vegetables separate as many fruits produce a gas that drives ripening. 

If we’re all a little more thoughtful about what we buy and how we store it, we can reduce food waste and avoid plastic while we do it.