Bulk Peanut Butter

I am so in love with Community Market. I love just about everything about that little store. After the post Erica did awhile back about all the things that we think can be recycled but can't (but I still really want to do the tour with our local recycler to find out what the deal is locally) it got me wanting to reduce waste even more. I'm really enjoying shopping in the bulk section and I feel good about all the packaging that saves.

Today I brought in my empty unwashed peanut butter jar (that we had just finished) and had them weigh it, then filled it up with bulk peanut butter. Plus it was kind of fun to use that grind-up-the-peanuts-machine. Another bonus- natural peanut butter that you don't have to stir!!!

Bulk

I finally did it. I set us up to buy in bulk. This is something I've been wanting to do for quite a while. I plan to buy nuts, cereal, pasta, crackers, dried fruit, snacks, etc.

I was having trouble deciding on the best way to do it. I called Community Market because they have a really big bulk foods section and I wanted to get some tips. I asked if there was a good system to bring your own containers in. They said most people just use the plastic bags because they are so much less bulky than bringing in any kind of container. They said a lot of people re-use their bags over and over again. They said most people use Mason jars which they sell there.

I decided to head to Michael's Crafts (since I had a store credit I've been carrying around forever) and see what kind of jars they had. They had the Mason jars, but I decided on the ones I got because I like the lids better. The guy at Community Market also suggested reusing jars. So as I have a pasta sauce jar, or whatever, that is a nice size I'll wash that and use that too.

I'm really excited about all the packaging I'll be saving. I still need to figure out a good system to reuse the bags, but even worse case, I recycle them, it's still a big reduction in waste. I'm not very good at calculating this kind of thing out (I've noticed you are Sarah Michele- if you do the switch you should do a cost comparison!), but I'm pretty sure there will be a cost savings. And the selection in the bulk is almost always more whole foods and organic selections compared to elsewhere in the store.

And the final bonus is how organized my pantry is. I am loving not having all those half empty boxes crammed in there!

I am still looking for some good cereal sized containers. Sarah M., I looked for the ones from Ikea online but didn't see them. Did you get them at the store?