I personally do this where I can. I'll use cans as pen holders, egg cartons for seed trays and old plastic take out containers for storing things like pet food in the refrigerator. I also reuse the bags that food comes in as rubbish bags, for example using a mushroom container to hold scraps of vegetables before they can go in the compost bin outside. Is this something that you do, or do you throw away any empty food containers when you're finished with them?
It depends on the container size, durability, and shape. I can't help but keep some of the take out plastic containers. I store soup stock in tall containers. And then if it's flat, I might store leftovers or sandwich meats. But some containers still smell like what it used to store. Or I couldn't clean it well, then I would have to toss it.
I always try to. I would rather not blindly dump waste onto this beautiful planet, as I consider that at best stupid and at worst extremely destructive. I would rather get as much use as possible out of what I already paid for then contribute to the cockroach free-for-all that is the global trash situation.
When we order food for delivery, the usual container is the rectangular plastic with cover. We collect those plastic for reuse when we need to pack food for a trip or even reheating in the microwave, that plastic container is very handy. There are so many uses for those rectangular plastic containers that we do not buy anymore since we have tons of collections.
We reuse the microwavable plastic containers and those ice cream containers, since they can replace Tupperwares nowadays. When we buy something, we reuse the paper bag and place it in the thrash can so that the oily and moist stuff doesn't go directly to the plastic thrash can. We don't reuse egg cartons, but sometimes we reuse large plastic bottles for drinking water.
Sometimes. Lately I've been trying to save any mason jars that the pasta sauce I'm buying comes packaged in. Brands such as Classico package their sauces in nice looking mason jars which don't have any branding on them aside from the lids (which I wish they didn't). These are useful for storing stuff such as stocks or sauces, as well as things such as fresh berries. The other nice thing, is when storing stuff like tomato sauces, I don't have to worry about it staining my plastic storage containers. In addition, plastic can sometimes absorb odors from particularly pungent food, whereas glass doesn't
I really admire your level of recycling, @cocolgooh! I try to do my bit, but nowhere near as you do. I recycle all my plastic carrier bags and some of the food containers, but everything else goes in the bin. I think if I kept it up, my place would probably be cluttered and I hate any amount of clutter. I find the food containers don't really last though, and they also warp in the microwave. So I use some to store food in the fridge, but for the most part, I prefer tupperware.
I reuse the plastic containers the butter comes in to store food in the freezer. The plastic bags are put into the trash cans around the house and recycled when we get way too many of the shopping bags in the house. The sauce jars store canned fruit had smoothies that have to travel for later.
I will reuse many of the plastic containers that food comes in such as the ones that lunch meat will come in. When I was growing up we saved all the butter containers and any other plastic container so my mom could use them to freeze some of the vegetables that we grew in the garden. We saved baby food jars to as they were the perfect size for putting cut bell peppers in to freeze for recipes like chili. If I cannot reuse them then I will recycle them. Some of them are good for storage of other items besides food too.
I do and I try to use them again as much as possible, though I don't tend to use food containers for other types of items even if I know all can be washed enough that it wouldn't matter. I just can't seem to get over the fact that there used to be food there and if I'm putting pens or any other tools in there I will constantly be bugged by it. The most I would do is to use it for gardening as you've mentioned where it can be containers for dirt or soil. Sometimes I reuse mayonnaise jars to store my chicken salad when I empty the contents and mix it into a bowl it just feels like a natural fit to put the mixed salad back in since it's made of the same ingredient it used to hold anyway.
Where possible I reuse these containers. They may come in handy for storing of stuff of for packing food to go. Many of them are microwave compatible so there again they could be useful. The problem with some of these containers, however, is that some are really greasy and there are others that absorb the smell of certain foods that is placed in the. these are the ones that I would readily discard
