Plastic

How much of the plastic that you "purchase" do you use?

What I mean is, when an item, say lettuce, comes in a plastic container, which is becoming the norm in many grocery stores, how many of those containers do you save?  What do you do with them?  AND where do you store them all?

I have been saving them and using them for the following:

• They make nice containers for things, such as cookies, where you don't want to worry about getting a nice container back.
• I have used them for holding compost items in the fridge til I take them to the pile.
• I have used them as seed starting trays.

I know that I don't have to "buy" items in these plastic containers, but I have found that the lettuce in these containers tends to be fresher and stay longer.  Plus, they pack so much into the container it seems the greens go on forever.

I feel guilty if I don't try to use them at least once before recycling them into the garbage pick up.  So I'm looking for other ideas of how to use them.

I also try to "reuse" the coffee containers,  those are great for "hiding" things in, because I buy Folgers and those containers are red.  When I get a good deal on chocolate chips or chocolate kisses, I put them in there, that way, when I want to bake cookies, I have them!

Now, the plastic bags that grapes or oranges come in, I rinse them out and put them on the side, but I still haven't figured out what to use them for.  I already save and reuse Ziploc bags if they haven't had raw meat in them, they get used until they have holes in them.

When I forget my reusable shopping bags, and get a plastic one, I try to reuse those as well, usually in the bathrooms for the garbage cans.  Or they get used as dog poop bags.  I don't have many of those anymore though.

What types of things do you do with your plastic? AND where do you store them?