packaging wet ingredients on the trail
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Okay, disposable water bottles are evil, filling up landfills, destroying the ozone layer, blah, blah, blah.
But the sturdier ones are far cheaper and lighter than any Nalgene offering. And can be reused many times for water. And yet are cheap enough (free at the cycling center!) that I don't hesitate to use for one-time purposes like transporting cooking oil, detergent, etc.
For olive oil or other liquids in moderate quantities, I like the the 8-ounce Evian or Dasani bottles. The lids are quite good. They will hold more pressure than your car tires (really!) Often they are free at conferences or in first-class on the plane or just buy a 8- or 24-pack for very little per bottle.
For 3 ounces of wet ingredients, I like repurposing these "5-hour Energy boost" bottles. 3 ounces, really strong, water-tight. And free. Sold in all convenience stores and venues frequented by skate-boarders and hipster dudes with those goofy little goatee things on their chin, they are laying around as litter outside of any such place. Being HDPE, you can run them through the dishwasher to wash off the hipster-dude cooties and between uses.
Peeling the 5-hour wrapper leaves a simple white container (and saves 1.73 grams).
For an ounce of stuff, there are lots of "travel-size" and "sample-size" containers in every supermarket and Walmart. Hand sanitizer, shampoo, mouthwash, etc. For 97 cents. Kind of expensive for an ounce of goo, but far cheaper than small Nalgene containers at REI. I prefer keeping liquids in factory-labelled containers, but if I've removed the hand sanitizer label and the contents are now red and chunky, I know it is salsa.
I'll also note that a lot of people could trim half a pound from their toiletries and other liquids by going from 2- and 4-ounce containers of DEET, sunscreen, hand sanitizer, toothpaste, anti-fungal, etc to 0.25-, 0.5- and 1-ounce containers, some of which can be found in such sample-size displays. I have NEVER run out of hand sanitizer using a 2-ounce container, even with 5 people along. So I just grabbed a 1-ounce container. Why bring a 1-ounce tube of toothpaste? Have you ever run out on a trip? Get a 7-gram tube and refill it between trips.
Akin to: "If you weren't wearing all your clothes at some point on the trip, you brought too much clothing", "If you came back with cosmetics, soaps or other liquids, you should downsize for your next trip."
I have been using these:
but was thinking there might be a better, more compact way. If I get fancy in my food bag, there can be several of those little bottles, that I am then carrying for no good purpose!
I suppose that perhaps I should designate this trip as "Thai menu", and carry one slightly larger bottle of fish sauce and chili paste, or that trip as "Italian menu" and carry flavored olive oil, rather than mixing my cuisines and having multiple little bottles! That's why I was thinking about smaller, disposable, individual packets. That's just more landfill, though.
David, those 6 hour energy bottles don't leak? I use a ton of those, but I've had them leak in my glove compartment, so I didn't trust them for re-use.
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