Now that I’m making my own bread, with moderate success, I need to be more mindful of my flours’ packaging. I say flours – plural – because when you’re gluten-free you usually use a mix of different flours. One of the things I’ve noticed with the gluten-free flours is that they typically come in plastic bags. Whereas the regular wheat flour in the grocery store comes in paper bags. So for those of you who can eat regular flour, you’re pretty much good to go on this one.
For us gluten-free or gluten-sensitive folk, this is going to be a bit more complicated. Because it feels like I’m just switching out the plastic packaging of the bread bags for the plastic packaging of the flour(s). Either way, I wanted to use up the plastic bags of GF flour I already had in my pantry before getting anything else. In doing so, I’ve noticed that I can make several loaves of bread out of one bag of flour. So maybe this qualifies as a plastic reduction option? I’ll include the plastic weights for my evaluations at the end of this challenge.
What options does that leave for plastic-free GF flours?
Once again, it’s the bulk food store to the rescue for plastic-free and gluten-free options! Fortunately, all the bulk food stores I’ve checked out have gluten-free flour. Granted, some of them have more GF options than others so you’ve got to keep that in mind when shopping around. I was super excited to see that my local bulk food store also carries einkorn flour! Since I can tolerate sourdoughs pretty well, I wanted to start making my own einkorn sourdough (check out this article by Donna Schwenk on einkorn flour to learn more). I even found an einkorn sourdough starter🙂
Now, I’m not ignoring that the bulk food stores get some of their flours and grains in plastic bags. In this case, though, it’s safe to say they are reducing plastic by having one big bag rather than lots of little ones to recycle or throw away. Be sure to talk with your recycling center about what plastic bags/films they can process. – – Update: I talked with 2 of the bulk food stores in my area and most of their bulk GF flours come in paper bags (which is more easily recycled). So it seems it’s just the GF flours in the grocery store that come in plastic bags.
- Special note: do not put plastic bags/films in the regular curbside recycling!! They have to be processed separately from the mainstream recycling otherwise the recycling equipment will get clogged or jammed. Many large grocery store chains have specialized recycling bins in the front of their stores to drop off your plastic bags/films. You can also contact your recycling center to see if you can drop off your plastic bags with them.
- You can learn more about the recycling process, along with do’s and don’ts, from Jennie Romer’s book, Can I Recycle This?
No bulk food store? Here’s another option for flour!
Another option to consider, especially if you don’t have a bulk food store nearby, is Azure Standard*. I first learned about them through one of my food prepper books and I’m so glad I did! Azure is an alternative food distribution system that specializes in quality, natural bulk food. What makes them an alternative is that instead of distributing to stores, they deliver orders to drop-off points throughout the USA.
Whether it’s a big city or a rural small town, they deliver just about anywhere in America. Where I live now, I’m fortunate to have reasonable access to several bulk food stores, but that wasn’t always the case. I did, however, always have an Azure drop-off location.
I really value alternative food systems because I think they are critical to long-term food security and resilience. Azure Standard is a model of one of those systems because it can overcome the barriers of distributing healthy foods to rural communities and food deserts.
More options for bulk flour
Between the bulk food stores and Azure, I haven’t really had to use these other options but I know many people who love them. The other options for bulk food would be the warehouse stores like Sam’s and Costco. They both require a membership so you would have to factor that into the budget. For GF foods, Costco usually has a better selection. The other option is purchasing bulk foods online.
Hopefully this can help you with reducing plastic for your baked goods. If I left out any bulk food options feel free to mention them in the comments.
- Note: I will only recommend products that I personally use and love and hope can be of benefit to others in their sustainable journeys. (*) indicates an affiliate link where Sustainable Pursuits llc may receive a small compensation for product recommendations. This helps to support Sustainable Pursuits llc and my ability to share these experiences with you! If there is no (*) then the link is for informational purposes only.
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