Supermarket Recipe Booklets: Free, Useless, and Headed for the Bin

Are you the type who brings home those free recipe booklets from supermarkets? You know the ones — glossy covers, cheerful food photos, and promises of easy weeknight meals. You take one, thinking you might try something new. But let us be honest — you never read it, never make anything from it, and weeks later, it ends up in the trash. The only thing this ritual accomplishes is annoying your partner when it clutters the kitchen bench or the dining table.

The question is — why do supermarkets keep printing these? They are not inspiring gourmet meals, and most people do not even glance past the first page. What they actually do is waste paper, ink, and transport energy. Multiply that across every store in the country, and you get tons of useless booklets contributing to landfill and pollution.

It is strange. In an age when everything is digital and recipes are one search away, we are still printing paper nobody wants. These booklets are often filled with vague, unoriginal ideas, or worse — advertisements disguised as recipes using overpriced branded items. A salad with three ingredients and a fancy dressing is not a recipe. It is a sales pitch.

So here we are. Booklets that nobody reads, meals that nobody makes, trees that did not need to be cut, and money that could have been spent elsewhere. Maybe it is time supermarkets rethink this habit. And maybe it is time we stop pretending we will ever make that supermarket frittata.