This is how your parents and grandparents lived. Stuff got dirty, and instead of tossing it after having used it once, they.. washed it!
When I go shopping, I:
* bring my own bag
* buy oat, rice, sugar, pasta, chocolate etc in bulk (w/ textile bags I bring)
* refill detergent containers in-shop
* buy fruit & veg without packaging
.. and I have no meaningful reduction of my living standard. I know it's difficult to make some sacrifices. But honestly, if we can't as a society be ars*d to do even that, perhaps we deserve to disappear after ecological collapse, and the geopolitical consequences of that.
I've heard that there is a powder processing device called entoleter that are typically NOT used in Europe for grain and powdered food products, as ambient temperature is low enough for bugs to hatch and grow on such food in considerable likelihood.
What I'm saying is, the chance of that happening IS considerably high elsewhere, and in such elsewhere it is imperative that oat, rice, not sugar but pasta, and chocolate, must be denied of life under sterile light of an ultra processing foodstuff factory and somewhat hermetically sealed. Otherwise you wouldn't know what you'll be getting later.
Just something which reason isn't immediately obvious sometimes.
You seem quite hell-bent on denouncing containers. Yet, a good container with a plastic seal on the lid will keep your food completely clean and be pretty airtight to keep it fresh for a while.
I use reusable containers for 90% of the stuff I use, especially tools, projects, etc.
I also use glass reusable
containers all the time for food, as they don’t soak up weird smells and stains that can’t be cleaned out, and have bacterial problems and leeching issues like reusable plastic containers.
They aren’t practical for anywhere they’ll be exposed to impacts a lot or weight matters, like kids lunches or whatever, so I use plastic ones there.
But I’m under no illusions that any of those make any sense whatsoever for large scale food distribution, and neither should anyone else.
