If you want to shop plastic-free then you need to take your own packaging. Seems like a lot of bother? Well, here are some reasons why you might wish to consider this option:
You don’t like that hormone inhibitors and toxic chemicals can leach from plastic packaging into your food,
You hate plastic pollution,
You love being zero waste
You find a place that sells your required product unwrapped. This can be anywhere from your local butcher to the cheese counter at Morrisons.
You take your own packaging and ask them use that. Bit embarrassing at first but stick with it – I do it everywhere.
Reusables 
PRODUCE BAG
These are reusable bags that can be used instead of the plastic bags supplied by shops. Use them for veges, and anything else loose and dry,
I use a cotton or net produce bags.
Find out more about
synthetic mesh bags
organic cotton produce bags
TUBS
For meat, fish and other stuff I try to use a reusable plastic tub whenever can.Which means I take my own tub to the butchers and ask them to use that. I use a plastic tub because it is water proof, lightweight, I have had it for ages and there is lots of wear in it yet.
If you are worried about chemical leaching you might not want to use plastic tubs. As you know if you wash plastic at hot enough temperatures to clean the container properly, it is more likely to leach chemicals. And that plastic leaches more chemicals as it ages.
If this worries you can get metal or glass dishes. Glass is heavy so I would recommend metal dishes.
And some times, it doesn’t matter what I take, I get refusals. Supermarkets especially are not keen on this and will argue long and hard. Even some local butchers will refuse., in which case I use…..
Disposables
The following products are certified compostable and I compost them at home in my bin once I have done with them. They can also be safely burnt.
For meat and fish I use bio plastic (corn starch bags – made from vegetables)
For cheese and such like its old school paper bags.
At the deli counter where I get humus, pate and the rest, I use these compostable PLA pots.
More
Though I recommend finding reuses for your disposable packaging, (for example using the bio bags to line your compost bin),they are of course disposable. This might not sound like the greenest option but it is still a whole load better than plastic.
Compostable?
What is compostable? To be classed compostable, items must biodegrade within a certain time (around the rate at which paper biodegrades), and the resulting biomass must be free of toxins, able to sustain plant life and be used as an organic fertilizer or soil additive. For a man-made product to be sold as compostable, it has to meet certain standards. One such is the European Norm EN13432. You can find out more here.
Taking it home
Carry your shopping home in a reusable carrier bag – natch!
My bags of choice are those old granny favourites, string bags.
I also have some tiny fold up carrier bags which come in very handy.
More
Though I recommend finding reuses for your disposable packaging, (for example using the bio bags to line your compost bin),they are of course disposable. This might not sound like the greenest option but it is still a whole load better than plastic.
I compost all this packaging in my own compost bin. Yes even the cornstarch plastic bags and pots.
Loose Food A to Z
Find out if a shop near you sells bulk food loose. This is stuff that that normally comes plastic packaged ie rice, pasta and salt. And yes these shops do exist in the U.K. There’s just not many of them. Heres a list of towns with shops selling loose food, organised alphabetically.
Buy Packaging
Being committed to local shopping, I prefer to buy that way whenever possible. I would encourage you to do the same. One of the joys of living plastic free is mooching round the local shops seeing what you can source. If you can’t buy local please do check the links above to the suppliers and buy direct from them and support their online businesses.