Many stores offer some of their staple items from bulk containers. This option often reduces packagaing waste greatly.
Our local store recently stopped carrying one of my favorite cereals,
Bob's Red Mill 5-Grain Rolled Cereal wih Flaxseed. It's like oatmeal, but has a lot of extra whole grains, and I like it better. It's a combination of rolled whole wheat, rye, oats, barley, triticale and flaxseed. I like oatmeal, and eat it often, but kept Bob's Red Mill on hand for a change of taste.
If I find Bob's Red Mill at another local store, I'll still buy some occasionally. However, after looking around, my wife found an acceptable substitute,
Sunridge Farms Organic Four Grain Cereal, in the bulk cereals in one of our better local grocery stores.
Some stores will let you bring your own reuseable container for bulk items. Our store is set up to dispense into a plastic bag that they supply and then put on their scale; it prints a label with the name, codes and price. I'm not a fan of plastic bag waste, so we'll just peel off the label and take the empty bag back to refill again.
