For the most part when I pick up my produce at the CSA, it’s up to me to bring my own bags and boxes for carrying those fruits, vegetables and herbs home. This really creates a zero-waste scenario, because I reuse those bags and anything I need to throw out once I clean the vegetables, I put in my compost. The only disposable I sometimes end up with are red, industrial-strength rubber bands. This past week, for example, there were those rubber bands on bunches of basil and beets.
Similarly, I get two newspapers delivered daily. One paper comes in a plastic sleeve that I reuse to pick up after my dog. The other paper sometimes comes in a plastic sleeve when there’s rain in the forecast (I reuse that sleeve, too, with my dog). Most days, though, it comes rolled and secured with a rubber band.
What this means is that I have a lot of rubber bands lying around my house. Well, actually, most of them are stored in our “junk drawer”–that place where you dump stuff that you’re not sure where it belongs. Lately, the rubber band supply has started to get a bit out of control. Since I don’t want to toss the rubber bands in the trash, I’ve come up with some ways that I can reuse them:
* Keep bags closed
Whether it’s bags of frozen fruit that we keep on hand for smoothies or snacks in the cabinet, we’ll fold the top of the bag down, then put the rubber band on the bag the long way (top to bottom) to keep it closed and its contents fresh. (We also use binder clips from my office to close bags, too.)
* Secure decorations on the porch or a fence
This past 4th of July we wanted to put up a red, white and blue bunting on our fence, and rubber bands were all I had on hand. So I create something like a slipknot through the bunting’s grommet, then secured it to the fence. (Metal twist ties from the produce department work in a pinch as well.)
* Organize a desk drawer
Take a handful of pencils, pens, crayons or whatever, and enclose them with a rubber band. This way you can keep like-minded items together in a semi-organized fashion in a desk drawer.
* Wrap a present
Instead of wasting tape on wrapping a present, use two rubber brands, put on perpendicular to one another, to close the wrapping paper. Or if you like to wrap in fabric like I do, the rubber bands will work equally as well.
* Keep a door open
There are times when you need a door that closes automatically (like a screen door) to stay open. If there isn’t a mechanism on the door to let you lock it in the open position, you can wrap one end of a rubber band around the doorknob and then the other end around another doorknob (if there’s one nearby) or a post or anything else.
* Open a jar
This is a tip you’ll often find in women’s magazines like Woman’s Day: if you have trouble opening a jar, put a rubber band around the lid, then twist off the lid. The rubber band provides extra grip to help you out. (I’ve heard that putting on a pair of rubber cleaning gloves helps in this respect, too.)
Check out this Reader’s Digest article for other uses for rubber bands. Then post a comment to let me know about how you might reuse a rubber band so that you don’t have to throw it out. Oh and as the mother of girls, please don’t ever reuse rubber bands to hold back your hair. It will knot it and tear it out at the roots. Always use coated rubber bands, please!
10 Comments
August 29, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Hi, Leah!
I keep rubber bands in my knitting bag. When I’m finished with a knitting session, I wrap a band around the point-end of the needle; it keeps the stitches from slipping off, and the rubber band doesn’t fall off the way the rubber tip covers sometimes do. I also use them to keep pairs of needles with their partners.
August 29, 2008 at 3:24 pm
These are some great ideas for rubberbands. I don’t accumalate many and often find myself searching for a ruberband to hold something together.
August 29, 2008 at 8:17 pm
We used to get a big stockpile of these in an office I used to work at. We’d end up giving them back to the mailroom since that’s were we got most of them from, so how about giving them back to the CSA?
I, too use them for bags of frozen veggies, as well as bags of regular pantry items like brown sugar, macaroni, spice packets, etc. I have a really big one that I use for keeping my immersible blender motor and wand (and cord!!) all together. Actually, they’re really great for any cord problem!
August 29, 2008 at 8:24 pm
MJ:
That’s a brilliant idea, to give the rubber bands back. Thanks for the suggestion. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t think of that myself.
Leah
August 29, 2008 at 11:12 pm
And don’t forget that you can gather a bagful or boxful of rubber bands to donate to your local school or child care. It’ll save them a few precious pennies, and their budgets are skyrocketing with fuel and food costs.
May 29, 2009 at 5:12 pm
As a teacher, I strongly support this suggestion. I can almost never keep enough rubber bands on hand compared to the number that I need, and the school is hurting bad for money.
August 31, 2008 at 2:54 am
And one more: check with violin teachers, especially those with young students. They use strong rubber bands to hold the chin-rest sponges on the instrument.
August 31, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Our newspaper delivers were a young couple. They left us a note once asking for any unwanted rubber bands to be collected and left outside our door. It helped them save money and prevented us from collecting tons we had no use for. You might want to see if your delivers would like them back.
April 8, 2009 at 11:53 am
[...] instead. Also, figure out ways you can reuse items around the house like toilet paper rolls or rubber bands so you can keep them out of the [...]
August 16, 2009 at 7:02 am
Hello All!
I like the idea for keeping rubber bands. I find that it is easiest to recycle items when each has a special place to be stored, otherwise my husband gets frustrated and chucks them all in the trash.
With two young children, we buy applesauce in bulk. We reuse the jars for recycling centers and store them in the laundry room. That way they are out of the way and organized in a way that is pleasing to the eye.
We have also use jars to make banks where my daughter is working on sorting coins and learning the value of each. My daughter loved making the banks (with a screwdriver and mallet).