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Nearly crippled my daughter. She bought pots to start plants in this year. I had to take her on a tour of her kitchen and point out the number of pots she is throwing away. Plastic coffee containers (thank you Folgers), Coffee Mate containers, Clorox wipes, 2 liter soft drink bottles are only a few 'future' pots that she has been throwing out.
Despite my best efforts, she sometimes doesn't think cheap.
I once used tin cans to start tomatoes and bell peppers. It is now harder to find a tin can. Everything is aluminum.
I have also used 2 liter soft drink bottles to make bird feeders. The birds don't seem to mind at all!
Remember when everyone saved the Chinese takeout soup containers for use?
How many have had drawers full of plastic utensils from fast food places?
How about all of those saved plant pots from the garden centers? I've more than one or two.
I reuse TV dinner trays. I have two from the 1970s that are STILL in use as microwave plates.
Cottage cheese containers get re-used. Some have become containers for ant bait, with the addition of a few holes.
The (Hillshire Farms?) deli meat containers get reused because they are a perfect one-serving size for frozen foods. I actually had to limit myself to KFC gravy containers, pint freezer containers from DT, those deli meat containers, and a larger common container, plus the cottage cheese containers. Between those, all of my freezing and leftovers are taken care of.
Most weeks, for the full week my garbage that I set out for pickup is a single small bag. Some weeks there is none.
I am just too cheap to buy anything if I can make do with something I already have. I also save containers to freeze single portion size meals in. As far as I am concerned, any container I can reuse is money I don't spend.
Most (all?) plastic that food is sold in is not safe for freezing.
Bullcrap. I don't know who sold you that bill-o-goods, but it is ridiculous. As a simple example of why, chemical reactions are dependent upon HEAT to make molecules move fast enough to form and break bonds. Freezing reduces heat. IF that BS was true, those same plastics would be even MORE unsafe at refrigerator and room temperatures.
Glass containers can crack and break with freezing. The safe thawing of frozen foods in plastic can take time (don't put in toaster oven or air fryer) but plastic in a freezer is close to inert. Plastics can get brittle in cold and break as well, but not as commonly as watery foods contained in glass.
Food packaging in the U.S. has to meet certain standards. Traditional fish-n-chips that used to be wrapped in newspaper are now required to have food safe fake newspaper wraps. Those, and claims like the above, are fake news.
I don't actually get a lot of plastic containers to be reused. I save the square plastic jars that nuts come in from Costco and I use those as canisters for all sorts of things. Ditto for the large mayonnaise jars. They now all contain flours and nuts and candies that were purchased in bags and moved to the jars.
I reuse all of the plastic planters from the nursery and I use sour cream containers to start seeds.
However, I have many dozens of plastic food storage containers that I bought as food storage containers and there is lots of meal freezing going on at my house.
The glass jars... well I save the small ones for spices purchased from the bulk bins, medium sized ones are used to store bbq rubs, and the larger ones get used for bacon grease.
Remember when everyone saved the Chinese takeout soup containers for use?
Cottage cheese containers get re-used. Some have become containers for ant bait, with the addition of a few holes.
The (Hillshire Farms?) deli meat containers get reused because they are a perfect one-serving size for frozen foods. I actually had to limit myself to KFC gravy containers, pint freezer containers from DT, those deli meat containers, and a larger common container, plus the cottage cheese containers. Between those, all of my freezing and leftovers are taken care of.
Most weeks, for the full week my garbage that I set out for pickup is a single small bag. Some weeks there is none.
I send out meals to many of my neighbors. All the containers above are great to send meals to neighbors. And they are reusable.
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- I believe there are already threads on this.
