The small green step – plastic bags from the store:

Bulk food is an excellent eco-option. Even if you use nothing but plastic bags to store your bulk food items in, you’re still coming out ahead eco-wise in my opinion. Most food items aren’t just packaged once, but two and three times. Consider oatmeal – you’ve got the box, plus little packages of oatmeal, so it’s twice packaged. Crackers often come packaged in a box, then also plastic bags or wraps on the inside. So, even though plastic bags suck, you may be doing better by buying bulk in plastic bags. It’s a small step.

You can make this small step even better if you always reuse your bags for your next trip to the bulk food section.

A bigger green step – refillable plastic containers:

If you want to take a bigger step, you can buy a decent set of lightweight containers and use them for buying bulk. At one co-op I frequented, they even had a list of typical container weights, so at the check out, you’d say, I brought my own container for shampoo, or cereal, and they’d deduct that weight from the cost.

Some might argue that buying plastic containers is a non-eco choice. However, if you’re using them to carry bulk food, I still think it’s a pretty good choice. A decent set of plastic containers will last forever, especially if all you’re doing is carrying bulk food around in them. Also, containers, over most bags, have the advantage of no leaks. Of course if you buy items like peanut butter and honey in bulk, you’ll have no choice – bags won’t be an option, plastic is one of the only choices. You can get glass containers, but you’ll need to know the pre-filled weight, and not drop them.

Biggest green steps – eco-bulk storage options:

Burlap bags can be used to store coffee, tea, pasta, beans, and more – anything not dusty (like flour). Although, I’ve used burlap baggies for herbs, and other small grains with no problem. It’s really going to depend on the burlap bags you own. Some have tighter fibers than others.

[burlap from Garb the World]

Kootsac re-usable bulk storage bags from Kootsac at Etsy are a really great option. These bags hold everything; spices, flour, beans, coffee, and more.  The bags are lightweight, strong, reusable, washable and fasten with a twist tie (although, I wouldn’t use a twist tie. Plus they come in tons of size choices. This is maybe the best option I’ve seen for bulk food.

About the twist ties:

Don’t use the twist ties from the store if you can help it. They’re a mess of materials usually, and while they’re small, a lot will add up. What I do is use stickers – just little paper stickers that you can toss in with your recycling. I use those tiny garage sale price-tag stickers; so one pack very well could last you the rest of your life.

Stay tuned for a few more eco-smart bulk food storage options…

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in June 2008

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

This is a great do-together parent/kid project. Learn how to make your own at Craftzine. And don’t let the Easter message get the best of you. This project could easily be altered for any old season. Use various other stamps, like beach scene, or holly berries, etc, to make this bag an any-time project.

I was thinking, you could also use all sorts of cool stuff to liven up a bag with this Craftzine method; leaves, rocks, flowers, shapes you cut out of potatoes, and more.

Click here to learn about all the current contests, themes, and green challenges going on at Tree Hugging Family in June 2008

[PEEPS bag image via Craftzine - which by the way is a super place to find all sorts of cool crafts for you and the littles]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family