[RJVB]

Originally Posted by Slothead56

You really want to make a difference? Work with food manufacturer’s to find alternate packaging options.

AFAIK that's happening in the EU, but it's a long road if we don't want to throw all the advances in hygiene and related areas overboard AND keep prices affordable for everyone. People who're aware/concerned/engaged already buy in "biological" (organic in US speak?) stores, though there too not everything is sold in bulk.

FWIW, the plastic baggies to put fruit & vegetables in have been replaced with bags of a supposedly much quicker bio-degrading substance that may be (non-fossilised) plant-based. They certainly degrade quickly, and also make produce you keep in them degrade more quickly somehow.

I've learned last summer that old ("french terry") wash cloths kept humid are a great way to store fresh produce (chillis) from my garden in the veggie drawer (you can also buy ditto bags for 10-20$ a piece if you prefer). The logical concusion would be that you have a collection of similar cotton bags that you rotate through and use during shopping too (just make sure to weigh your purchases without the bag ).
Of course the cotton production industry isn't exactly the least eco-friendly from what I understand, but that should be offset at least somewhat by the long use you should get out of these bags.

And for the sake of all that is logical, work to eliminate single use plastic water bottles [...]There are much better options for drinking water.

For drinking, sure. But what options do you see to distribute mineral water that doesn't come at the cost of a big overhead, price increase or other unhealthy aspects (for us or the environment)? I guess aluminium cans like used for beer and softdrinks could be a solution, but does anyone know what the insides of those cans are lined with?

Originally Posted by frankmcr

Go to local shops like they (used to?) do in Europe (for example).
Carry your purchases home in a string bag

Hah, string bags. Haven't seen those in years, but guess what they were made of...
But: even the big (for us) supermarkets here now sell good-sized sturdy shopping bags made of recycled plastics, which they'll take back for trade-in when they're worn. They're widely used for transporting all kinds of different things, and the trade-in aspect apparently incites people to replace them responsibly.

Fun fact: TV series give us the idea that at least the US city dwellers shop in local stores and take their groceries home in nice big (and probably highly impractical) paper bags.