Inner city residents of Johannesburg in South Africa have been given access to a new kind of shopping experience: a zero-waste mobile grocery store.
The bus, called Skhaftin after the local slang word for lunchbox, sells fresh and dry foods such as rice, beans and lentils, as it makes its way around the city.
Shoppers bring their own containers, avoiding the use of packaging that could harm the environment.
Founder Ilka Stein and her team came up with the concept during the pandemic, to allow people to access healthy but affordable food in a sustainable way, without having to travel far from home.
“We knew, kind of, that food was important and that we had an interest in it and we wanted to see how could a different way if access to food look like and we looked into the concept of zero waste,” Ms Stein told the BBC’s Focus on Africa.
The produce is sourced from local farms where shoppers weren’t able to go during the lockdown. The lack of jobs also meant that shoppers were looking for cheaper options.
“With them you are able to buy most of the things that you need like especially in a week’s time that would be enough for you,” a resident Thulisile said.
