(It should be no surprise that making steel cans has a much bigger carbon footprint than making the plastic used in food bags.)

I was kinda surprised actually. Ain't a steel can easier to recycle?

Steel is routinely made of 25% recycled steel. Sometimes, the percentage is close to 100% recycled content. So that's not a clear loss to the environment.

Cooking: The processing plant still has to spend energy to cook the beans at the facility. In a better world, they derive some of their energy by on-site renewables or purchasing green-e power/credits. (You could do the same...) But, the expense of transporting that extra water is pretty big.

For the plastic bag, the only option is to find a location where you can purchase the beans in bulk to negate the plastic.

Doesn't recycling metal, whether steel or aluminum, still take a significant expenditure of energy and resources? Certainly not the same level as mining and processing iron ore, but it's not negligible.

Who the heck boils dried beans for 3 hours? You leave them in cold water for a day (6+ hours). Or if you want it to go fast you soak them for 1:30-2 hours, then cook them in the pressure cooker for 6 to 8 minutes.

Ain't a steel can easier to recycle?

Steel might be easier to recycle, but picture all that hot, hot fire that goes into making and remaking it. Hot, hot fire.

There's also the fact that mass production of beans involves a big carbon debt just because of all the fuel that goes into planting, fertilizing, harvesting, and transport to processing facility -- and that's before they ever go into bags or cans. (But on the other hand, beans are nitrogen fixers, so the soil they were grown in provides some added nutrients for the next crop that comes along.)

What happens after that -- bags, cans, cooking methods -- is a drop in the bucket.

(And by the way, beans are really easy to grow, so there's yer answer right there.)

Pressure cooker! That's exactly the info I needed! Thanks, dabitch! err, sorry to barge in all exclaimy...just didn't expect to find the THE ANSWER here. Thanks!

Oh, hell yes. A pressure cooker is a pretty amazing device; I used to share a kitchen with someone who had one, and once I got over my sit-com anxiety over it, I loved the thing. I might have to acquire one. We eat (and overthink) a lot of beans.

hahaha, you're welcome danostuporstar, funny it feels like I'm always chatting about food on mecha, in reality my man won't let me into his kitchen, because I do everything in the opposite way that he does (ie; wrong). He's the soak overnight guy, I'm the pressure cooker fast-gal. I can't even load the dishwasher without him correcting the position every item before running it. It is so his domain.