Sustainable Living Near Boston

How I try to live more sustainably (in Somerville). I’ll try to update when I can. I hope it can be helpful to folks in (or also outside) the area! If you have any suggestions, please comment at the bottom.

1. Groceries
   1. Fruits and vegetables
   2. Dry goods like beans, grains, flour, and nuts
   3. Spices
   4. Coffee and Tea
   5. Oils, vinegars, and other liquids
   6. Bread
2. Cleaning Things
   1. Other cleaning supply/personal care product refilleries
3. Transportation
   1. Local
   2. Regional
   3. National
   4. International
4. Energy and Water
   1. Energy Conservation Habits
   2. Renewables
5. Trash
   1. Compost

A map with some things on it (not comprehensive but fun to see):

Groceries

Fruits and vegetables

• Neighborhood Produce (Somerville), two small local produce-based grocery stores with quite fair prices. They’ve got most basic vegetables, some regional/local, not much organics. I go here for their bulk goods too, so I’m here a lot.
• Haymarket (Boston), a weekly open-air produce market that sells must-use-soon produce from the wholesale warehouses at very low prices. Like, 8 for $1 limes. Some people mistakenly call it a farmers’ market. It is not. Open Fridays and Saturdays.
• Farmer’s Markets. See list/maps of all at MassFarmersMarkets. I frequent the Union Square Farmers’ Market in summer and the Somerville Winter Farmers’ Market.
• Community Supported Agriculture shares. Many CSAs are available in the area. A CSA is when you pay upfront, usually for something like a weekly produce box for 8-12 weeks, and is a great way to support smaller scale (and usually more ethical) agriculture.

Dry goods like beans, grains, flour, and nuts

• Neighborhood Produce (Somerville) is the place for package-free dry goods around here. See product lists here. Some of my most frequent buys are black beans, red lentils, cannellini beans, chickpeas, yellow split peas, oatmeal, brown rice, farro, pasta, ground flaxseed, nutritional yeast, spices, and peanuts. They have a coffee grinder. I Note that the Broadway store has a much larger bulk selection than the Medford St store.

• SUPPLY Bulk Foods (many pickup locations) has a pretty good selection with a lot of organic options. This store works by ordering online for pickup at a one of many locations in the area, so it’s good for non-urgent pantry restocks

Spices

• Neighborhood Produce, once again. Both locations have spices in bulk. Most common spices are there. Some of my most frequent buys are cumin, italian blend, berbere, cinnamon & company, and paprika.
• Cambridge Naturals (Cambridge, Boston) has a large spice and herb selection (see all here). They offer plastic baggies but you can bring your own container and have it tared at the checkout counter. They have many less common herbs and spices that Neighborhood Produce doesn’t stock.
• SUPPLY Bulk Foods (many pickup locations) has a pretty good selection with a lot of organic options
• Debra’s Natural Gourmet has a spice section, with a mortar and pestle available for use too (cute!)

Coffee and Tea

• Neighborhood Produce has several varieties of whole beans and a grinder at both locations. Several varieties are from Equal Exchange. In the spice section, there is also a few bulk teas, including from our local company MEM teas.
• Cambridge Naturals (Cambridge, Boston) has a larger selection of bulk teas, also with many from MEM. But no bulk coffee.
• SUPPLY Bulk Foods (many pickup locations) has a pretty good selection with a lot of organic options

Oils, vinegars, and other liquids

• Neighborhood Produce has apple cider vinegar, balsamic, and white. Some sort of vegetable oil/s too. Please join me in requesting soy sauce.
• When Pigs Fly may have olive oil refill at some locations.

Bread

• Iggy’s Bread (Cambridge) will give you unsliced bread in a brown paper bag at their store, make sure to ask. They set up at some farmers’ markets as well, including Union Square.
• When Pigs Fly (Somerville, Boston, etc) will give you bread in a paper bag if asked. Hit-or-miss on allowing you to get it directly in your own bag.
• PRB Boulangerie (Somerville) gave me a baguette in a paper bag.
• Most bagel shops will give you unmodified bagels in a paper bag. Yet to be tested whether any will take a bag.
• Clover Food Lab bakes their pita locally from regionally made flour (woo!!!) but immediately package it in plastic bags (no!!!). I asked and they currently will not skip the plastic bag. I won’t say their “everything we hand you is compostable” line is performative but it’s not…exactly…true…
• There’s a lot of other bakeries I haven’t checked about BYO bag yet

Cleaning Things

For your home and person.

• Cleenland (Cambridge) is our humble local star of zero-waste supplies. They have basically all your bases covered for body and home care, like soaps, shampoo, laundry detergent, sunscreen, cleaning supplies, etc.
• Cleenland at Neighborhood Produce (Somerville). The Broadway location of NP has a corner that serves as a Cleenland outpost, with an abbreviated selection of products.
• Green Tiger in Union Square (Somerville). A small store focused on low waste and sustainable-r cleaning, beauty, and lifestyle products. Somewhat more expensive than Cleenland but larger selection.
• Cambridge Naturals has a lot of body care products, with varying degrees of packaging, and overall much less package-free stuff than Cleenland. I’ve gotten shampoo and laundry detegent in bulk once before.

Other cleaning supply/personal care product refilleries

I just don’t go there because I have what I need closer to me.

• Uvida Shop (Boston)
• Trove Green Provisons (Medford)
• Center Goods (Lexington)
• Yes! Your Eco Source (Belmont)
• Boston General Store (Boston) (not a full fledged refillery but apparently has detergent)

Transportation

Local

Anywhere within 15 miles is pretty close to home. I bike. It’s fun, sometimes social, invigorating, convenient, and faster than public transit most of the time. Some good bike trails include the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway, Charles River Greenway, East Coast Greenway, Bruce Freeman Rail Trail. And as much as there is to improve (a lot), the Boston area has bike lanes most of the rest of America could only dream of.

Regional

Longer bike trips such as this one are fun when I have the time.

The commuter rail from Boston expands my access to a lot more area. Most commuter trains allow bikes at least some of the time, so combining train with bike covers a virtually unlimited amount of adventuring.

Amtrak provides access to further destinations like NYC and Portland ME.

National

Amtrak and bus. Amtrak generally allows bikes, buses generally require them boxed and in cargo. I stick to Amtrak because I don’t want to deal with that.

It’s important to plan Amtrak trips with the bicycle in mind if you intend to bring one (official info here). There are three ways to Amtrak a bike: carry-on, trainside checked bicycle service, and checked in a box. Different trains and stations allow different ones (or none at all). All have a fee. Carry-on and trainside checked are the most convenient because you don’t have take the bike apart and pack it in a special box. For carry-on and trainside, you need to buy the bicycle add-on when buying the ticket.

International

Haven’t done it since I stopped flying. I suppose I could get to Canada (Bos/Treal bike trip does this every year, although a support vehicle carries their gear). Given enough time, I could get to anywhere in North and South America.

Energy and Water

Energy Conservation Habits

• Waiting until I have a full load to do laundry
• Air drying laundry, out in the sun in the summer or in the home
• Minimal AC use
• Using my Instant Pot instead of gas when possible (a lot), using an induction cooktop instead of gas cooktop
• Rarely using gas oven, instead using electric toaster oven when possible
• Cooler thermostat setting in winter

Renewables

I switched my apartment to the Somerville Community Choice Electric 100% Renewables plan, which uses Renewable Energy Credits, or RECs. It costs less than the Eversource default, and has more RECs.

Trash

Compost

The city of Somerville sadly does not do composting yet. I’ve had several systems for composting over the years. Currently, my household has a Garbage to Garden subscription where we put a bucket out for pickup once a week. Split among us, it comes out to only a few dollars a month. Previously, some things I’ve done are:

• Share a backyard tumbling composter
• Sneak over the Cambridge border and drop off at their communal collection points (what a rebel), but I later found out their processing was questionable
• Teaming up with a neighbor who’d let me add my scraps to their Garbage to Garden bin