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It is adequate.
It performs it’s function.No need for extreme consumerism & garbage production.
It’s biodegradable, renewable, and only needs to get from the manufacturer to your cabinet, where it can be replaced with heartier permanent storage.
Real environmentalists just pack the flour into their jeans pockets to avoid unnecessary paper waste
Classic Hank Scorpio
You joke but bulk stores exist where you can literally just take your own container and avoid the crappy leaky bags altogether.
Annoyingly they’re basically deli prices in my city
Real environmentalists keep a little dirt under their pillow for the dirt man, in case he comes to town.
I just put it straight into my mouth to avoid the extra cleaning and energy of cooking. Don’t you even care about the planet?
Into their jeans pocketsup their asses FTFY
Same for sugar, it’s really annoying that so many things have switched to plastic. Gram crackers, Ritz and Saltines all used to be in waxed paper when I was a kid and were fine.
Now they switch to plastic, but make sure it’s tinted to mimic the old paper versions.
And it also needs to leave everything inside my backpack coated in a thin layer of flour.
What I don’t get is why they put it in a single two-layer paper bag instead of two single-layer paper bags, which would clearly be more effective.
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Skill issue
Top comment is against the post, but the post has almost no downvotes. What is happening here?
There might be a desire from those that were looking for the top response to let it ride for visibility. I wish most things were as practically packaged as flour.
Edit: Can we do coffee next? I drink a lot of the stuff, and unless I roast my own, there is absolutely no environmentally friendly option. I tried roasting my own. I set off the smoke detector, upset the dogs, and made my house smell bad.
No local roaster that sell directly? We have a couple that sell by weight so I can bring in my own containers.
Most of the local roasters I go to sell coffee in recyclable paper bags that are technically resealable using the little bendy tie thingy. I end up just dumping it into an airtight glass jar once I open it up though.
Mine are always using plastic. I guess because they can seal it better? I feel like if I’m buying it directly to have it fresh this really doesn’t do shit, so I would be very cool with paper bags too.
Do you consider carbon neutral/negative(or at least as close as possible) to be environmentally friendly? What about sustainable agricultural practices?
If yes, I bought some coffee from Tiny Footprint coffee, which claims to be carbon negative, allegedly gets coffee from smaller local growers (you can pick the growing conditions you like, so like I got a bunch from women-owned farms), and they are actively trying to restore the areas where they source coffee. Also it’s packed in wax coated paper, and I believe you can buy bulk if you like.
It’s not cheap, and the roasts tend lighter than you’d expect (so imo a medium brews like a light), but it’s really good coffee.
And yeah, I live kinda close to a coffee roaster and it doesn’t smell great at all. If you have a garage, a cheap used oven set up out there might do the trick.
Sweet, thanks!
Yes, I seek out the most ethical option with whatever I consume. Being fair to people and kind to the environment should always come before convenience and profit. Especially for anything considered a luxury like coffee or chocolate. It would be nice if it was just on the shelf at the store since I’m already there, but it usually doesn’t work that way.
Roast it outside or on the stovetop with the fan going if that’s not an option
Downvoting isn’t for disagreement. If you think the conversation is valuable you can upvote for visibility while disagreeing in a comment. This is important subject matter that needs to be hashed out!
I think it’s because a lot of people’s (myself included) knee-jerk reaction is “yeah, those bags do suck”, then they look at the comments and either realize the tide is against them or end up agreeing with the points in the comments upon reflection.
General rule of thumb is that for every 100 that vote, 10 read the comments and 1 will ever post.
*its
*tits
(And yes, ofc it’s its, but my phone keeb is doing its best, ok, I love my HeliBoard)
OK. We’ll start using single-use plastic.
Can we get some extra micro thrown in for our balls?
Hey remember the phase like 10 years ago when shower gel companies were selling shower gel with fucking little plastic balls in it as an exfoliant?! Can you fucking believe that was a thing that really happened fml
Still happens with face cleansers.
and toothpaste in some places
Those things were plastic?
I though they were like gelatinous or something
Of course, for an extra 10 cents on the dollar.
(it was already included)
I only want microplastics in my balls if it’s lab grown.
Lab grown balls? ~Also the name of my garrage band.~
I don’t know that there isn’t.
How about we start with slightly thicker paper bags that don’t leak as easily first?
They recently did that in Norway, it has improved my life by about 1%. You still get the flour explosion when opening a new bag though.
Wow dude I dont know if you know but thats actually really bad for the environment link
🫨
My bag of flour is in a Ziploc bag as we speak. As was the previous bag. The choice between environmentalism and a pantry without flour everywhere is unfortunately an easy one to make for me.
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Oh please god no
I like the flour bags, I would hate to have to buy in plastic containers.
Exactly, one of the last products not sold in single use plastic packaging yet gets shat on
My main thing with the paper bags is the glue they use that makes it difficult to open without ripping the bag,
This is not a problem in my country, I understand how this can be annoying.
Seconded. Pretty much minimum waste for the amount you get. Buy a four jar or snap container that will keep the air out. Reusable, keeps four fresh longer, easier to scoop from, less mess.
Empty popcorn tins sometimes work pretty well.
I bought a set of containers for stuff like that that is just too small. The bigger tubs hold about 4.8 pounds of flour so if I buy a 5 pound bag I have to wait until I make something to transfer it to the tub.
Much easier for shoplifting, yeah. Just stick a knife in the bag and inconspicuously drain it into your fanny pack while pretending to browse other baking items. Walk on out and you’ve got 1.5 lb of that all-purpose grain glitter and no one is the wiser.
Flour is like the cheapest food you can buy, though? A whole day of cheese and jalapeno stuffed bread takes like $5 to make.
You can use it for gravel as well. I walked into a quarry recently and pretended to fall into a pile of loose gravel (but then I started covertly shoveling it into my fanny pack).
Boom. Close the zipper on that lock box while some production employees help you out of the gravel and you’ve secured 1/8500th of what you need for your new driveway. You just have to pull the grift a few more times.
They know my face at the local quarry now, though, which is problematic.
Yeah, but like, the jalapenos and cheese don’t just fit in the fanny pack after all the flour is in there. It’s rough getting by these days.
So you’re the reason there’s always at least one ripped bag.
Jesus, I hope I’m the only reason…
Why not a recyclable cardboard tube like oats come in sometimes? Probably easier for logistics too when packaging (of course retooling all the equipment from like 1988 wouldnt be easy but its one and done)
The bags aren’t much better in this regard, but anything that easily topples over is going to add likeliness of spills. Also, those tubes are probably more expensive than the bags or the plastic.
Why not a recyclable cardboard tube like oats come in sometimes?
???
They mean a cardboard tube that’s recyclable. You know like cardboard, in a tube shape.
You know what a pipe made of metal looks like, well like that but not made of metal, made of cardboard. Imagine a flat bit of cardboard, in a tube shape.
This was helpful, but could you maybe create a diagram? Or perhaps an interpretive dance performance?
At least it’s paper and not plastic
I already have plastic in my balls
That’s where pee is stored idiot
Can’t store as much pee as you get older and it fills with plastic. This is how getting older works.
Oh I thought it benign prostatic hyperplasia but you’re telling me my balls are turning ping pong GREAT
We should go back to cloth sacks that we can make dresses out of again!
We’ve gone full circle, my mom has flour pots and my aunt makes dresses (little coverlets) for them.
coverlets ( small covers )
Little small covers
what is the complaint? not enough testicular microplastics?
Says someone who’s never tried to get flour out of a plastic bag before…
I haven’t even seen flour in a plastic bag and I can already imagine it being a PITA because of static cling! 😬
Ok, think of it like getting the last of the cocaine out the baggie.
Pour a tiny bit of water and drink it while maintaining eye contact with some old dude who just wants to wash his hands at the restaurant toilets.
Dad?
Just a sec son, dad just needs to pop down to the shops for bit.
Flip it inside out and rub it on my gums?
You roll down the bag and stuff that in the bag. It’s not that hard.
You want them to use plastic?
Then later complain about runaway plastic pollution?The same kind of circular logic applied to politics leads people to not vote, arguing that bOtH pArTiEs ArE tHe SaMe and never make the connection that their chronic apathy and fickleness is what caused the mess the are apathetic about, only now with more cynicism.
They used to use cloth with patterns on it you could make clothes out of.
Thank you for sending me down a delightful little rabbit hole looking into this
I came here to mention this. What a lot of us fail to realize is that businesses weren’t always seeking to cut corners to simply benefit shareholders. There used to be a more varied model of looking at what made a good business and part of that was being a bro to your customers and a good citizen of your national community. They didn’t just print flour bags with patterns for reuse, they had multiple patterns to choose from because they knew that stigma would arise for people clothed in repurposed flour bags if it was one specific look so they did a range of fabric patterns to ease the stigma of people just trying to get by.
The concepts of social responsibilities of business has fundamentally changed to a model of performative abstention of harm rather than an actual visible bettering of anything other than the lining of pockets
Yeah, I was quite surprised by this as I’m so used to how capitalism ruins everything.
https://adirondackgirlatheart.com/feed-sack-fabric/
This is what I read and it was a shock to me that companies not only improved the quality of the cloth when they realised people made garments from sacks, but also strove to provide fashionable designs and wash-off labels. There are some really gorgeous prints on here.
Nowadays, it feels like they would make the original packaging more coarse, then sell the product with nicer packaging at a premium, whilst making sure their logo was indelible.
We are dealing with a really not great situation currently. Capitalism has become an all gas no breaks situation but that wasn’t always the case. Like there didn’t used to be many billionaires not because of inflation but because you had a lot of cooling effects. Banks in the US used to not be able to invest with the funds of the individual patrons. They could only invest with their own funds which made banks very stable in comparison to now. Being taxed 70% personal income at the top bracket also had an effect. After awhile aiming for profits just brought diminished personal returns so what they did was reinvest those funds elsewhere in their own businesses. Offering competitive wages to attract better labour, providing kickbacks to customers to foster brand loyalty, donating to create things like museums, parks, halls and university amenities.
Not to say it was at all perfect. Like those resources tended to be very personal glory focused and fell often along classist and racist lines but it did mean that you didn’t have as much dragon hoarding or the purchase, hollowing out and dumping of businesses that are thrown out like used tissues after extraction of all the potential value that is common in our modern age.
If you’re ever trying to convince a friend on the fence about capitalism, try leading with recommending “The Man Who Broke Capitalism.” (If they read books, like some kind of nerd)
The author doesn’t quite make the next leap but it describes the problems with our modern interpretation quite well.
got people thru the great depression
Bitches about flour bags.
Turns it into a not both party are the same temper tantrum.
God I love this shithole of a website.
I’m honestly impressed by the leap
Came outta nowhere!
Dang facist paper flour bags! /s
Jesus christ, take a break… go for a walk.
And vote Biden to send trump to prison.
Where I live it’s plastic and they are still leaky.
Also, i guarantee that there are bugs infesting the flour section of your grocery store and they absolutely hitch rides on the bags home
Former grocery store worker.
Flour isn’t stored in sanitary conditions. It’s just giant piles in warehouses. This is the real reason that raw cookie dough isn’t safe to eat. The eggs are usually fine, it’s the flour that’s riddled with disease. If you heat it to about 160°F you can eat all the cookie dough you want.
NYT just posted a recipe two weeks back:
Heat-treat the flour: Heat oven to 400 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment, add the flour and spread it into a thin layer. Bake flour for 5 minutes (see Tip). Cool flour completely.
But my favorite hobby at home was spooning raw flour into my mouth and washing it down with melted crayons…
It’s just giant piles in warehouses.
EXCUSE ME?
At that point…it ceases to be cookie dough.
Are you saying that substituting apple sauce for eggs doesn’t make them safe?
Sorry, I meant that you heat the flour to 160°F, then cool and mix it it into the dough.
And, yes, I’m saying that substituting apple sauce doesn’t make it safe.
I could have gone my whole life not knowing that and you just walked right in here and said it.
To be fair to the stores, they arrive in the stores on the bags too.
What kind of bugs are you talking about? Flour mites?
Honestly its been years. I just remember the bugs and that they werent roaches.
Good idea to freeze a new bag of flour to kill the bugs/eggs
Oh. No, thank you.
The worst possible container for flour would be a hot sauce bottle.
Hershey’s syrup bottle
Fabreeze bottle
Single serving coffee creamer cups
Naw the little spout on top unscrews from that.
The store clerk’s mouth
nope. it’d be the balls
Garbage take. Just fill it into a glass jar at home. Nobody cares about the 0.03g of flour lost leaking out during transport.
Well you should be transferring it to a better vessel when you get home anyway. Flour really wants to be in something airtight.
I wish the shop just had each beand of flour in massive barrels and you could bring your own containers and fill them up. This would eliminate the need for packaging altogether. This should be the case for everything tbh. Soap, milk, detergents
Edit: I just realized I described eco-shops
Or old school bodegas.
Tf is an eco-shop?
I think he’s talking about a shop like that, where you bring your own container to fill them.
The Winco near my house has exactly this. Pretty sure PCC does too for like 8x the price.
Oh, like my caboose
In my experience flour doesn’t care (as long as it is stored dry). Me neither.
Concrete: I will ruin your fucking life
“What ever you do, do not breath in the concrete dust. We also packaged it in a flimsy paper bag allowing all the dust spill out and enter the air.”
On one hand I get why they do it, you need a lot of bags for larger jobs and trying to put those in plastic containers is extremely wasteful and costly, but they could at least double ply the bags or something.
Concrete bags are usually two ply, but they are pretty thin. Most of the dust gets shot out the corner when you move them around, especially the ones with the tear-out corner for pouring. They do sell concrete in plastic bags though, great for wet weather but they can get kind of slick. For the bigger jobs you get a mixer truck delivery.
I’ve dealt with double bags and it absolutely makes a huge difference
I buy it in paper bags and transfer it to cereal Tupperware.
If I buy flour in bulk, like more than 10kg at a time, I vacuum seal it in bags and then freeze/thaw/freeze it to kill beasties.
Beasties in the flour?
Weevil eggs
Yes there are bits and pieces and whole insects in your flour. And they are impossible to remove. So there are actual legal limits as to how much insects parts can be in the package of flour.
Things like meal worms tend to come from poor home storage though. If you store your flour in an air tight container, they aren’t much of a problem. Unless it take you years to use up a bag of flour.
Put it in the freezer for a couple of days before storing it
Won’t be long before flour companies start packaging with fabric so people can make clothes.
Again? I have a lovely quilt made by my great grandmother out of sack cloth.
