Sweden's first package-free grocery store Gram Malmö, and its manager is a woman from Taiwan, China! Huang Wuqiao witnesses Sweden's waste-reduction movement in progress

The zero-waste movement is flourishing around the world. In Taiwan, China, more and more "package-free" and "naked" stores are appearing, and more and more people are starting to bring their own cutlery, containers and shopping bags when they shop; all kinds of reusable tableware, hygiene products and other products are springing up on the market like bamboo shoots after rain.

However, on the other side of the globe, in Sweden, where environmental awareness is strong, such a flourishing plastic-reduction or zero-waste movement is nowhere to be seen. Swedes perhaps rely too much on and trust the system, believing that the most individuals can do is sort their garbage and use public transport more, leaving the rest to the government.

When shopping in Swedish supermarkets, this amusing phenomenon can be seen from time to time: a customer buys many organic, fair-trade and other products, but also casually grabs several pricey plastic shopping bags (since this year, the price of a plastic bag has risen to 6~7 kronor, about 24 Taiwan dollars). In fact, the Swedish government also hopes to reduce usage by raising the tax on plastic bags, but the results seem limited.

Sweden's strict food regulations also make it impossible to practise the waste-reduction method so familiar to people in Taiwan, China, of bringing your own takeaway container. COOP, the supermarket chain said to care most about environmental impact, tried something like package-free selling in its stores as early as the 1990s, but in the end it fizzled out.

Sweden's first package-free store, Gram Malmö, opened in 2016 in Malmö, the country's third-largest city, and in the store is a woman from Taiwan, China, Huang Wuqiao, who on this side of the globe has taken part in and witnessed Sweden's waste-reduction movement in progress.

Huang Wuqiao, who is from Taiwan, China, moved back to Sweden from Taipei in 2018 with her Swedish husband. Thanks to her family upbringing, environmental protection and waste reduction had always been part of her life; although she did not actively take part in environmental movements, she was no stranger to the concept. Before moving to Sweden she learned about the store Gram Malmö, and after arriving in Sweden she stepped into this interesting world step by step by volunteering at the store.

An unromantic store-running life, with "strength training" every day

Huang Wuqiao currently serves as the manager of Gram. The small store already carries more than 200 kinds of products; besides package-free foods, there are also all sorts of eco-friendly products. At present, 90% of the products in the store are organic, and nearly 15 of the items are fair trade.

Running a package-free store in Sweden sounds at first like a dreamy and romantic job, but unfortunately that is not the reality. Gram is a small business and cannot afford too much staffing cost, so Huang Wuqiao and her colleagues usually mind the store alone. From the preparations before opening, to serving customers after opening, to tidying up after closing, most of it has to be handled single-handedly.