OMG - may they rest in peace, my parents did the same thing. When I took them to visit my sister in PA and we stopped at a rest stop for something to eat, my dad cut his piece of cake with a knife, wiped it off with a napkin and handed it to my mom who put it in her pocketbook. On the way out, my mom stopped at the condiment table and took plasticware, ketchup packets, sugar, etc. I was so embarrassed. I wanted to tell her to put it all back but that would have drawn even more attention.
LOL, ugh I remember my grandparents clearing off the restaurant table's condiments after we were finished eating. Do you think what I'm seeing are the warning signs and it's only going to get worse?
I certainly hope not although there are some things that I do lately that make me think I', becoming one of my parents. I threw out a bag full of plastic bags from the newspaper deliveries and from the weekly advertisements they put in our lobby. Don't ask me why I was keeping them in the first place. The only thing I've taken from the condiment table is a small packet of chili flakes because I would never use up the normal size from the supermarket. In fact, I haven't even opened the packet I took.
This post was edited by SpunkySenior at October 16, 2020 12:21 PM MDT
Good idea durdle I got a uv-c wand, it kills viruses and germs and even bugs and fungus spores, so I can sterilize masks in seconds, I had it before the pandemic because of asthma allergy with my son. They're very expensive now, no surprise!
I've always a few empty, washed jam-jars with their lids. Those I don't use for storing the second portion of food left in an opened can, are handy for such tasks as cleaning paint-brushes.
The grease-proof inner bag from an emptied cereal packet, for wrapping the loaf from my local bakers' (once I have opened the bag it is sold in in, and cut the bread). It keeps the bread quite fresh for several days.
Plastic or aluminium-foil trays from ready-meals, and empty margarine-tubs, are useful for assorted temporary purposes. I use a small yoghourt pot (cleaned out) as a scoop for refilling the bird-feeders.
Papers printed on one side only, be they letters , temporary prints or those annoying "alignment" sheets from my printer - they are all A4 size sheets. So I cut them in half and clip them together, blank side outwards, as scribbling-pads of convenient A5 size.
--- Most of the above materials are salvageable so once no longer fit or needed for their secondary use, they go in the green bin.
Pump-action soap dispensers: I refill them! I've also used pumps kept from these, to draw fluids like wood-preservatives from their cans. The bottles and cans are also salvageable materials as above, but the pumps are not.
Scrapped printers or other small appliances - I remove any parts potentially useful for model-making, like screws, springs and metal rods, before adding them to the electrical-goods recovery heap of the local Council tip.
'
(On a more serious note... By law, in the UK and in the EU, scrap electrical and electronic equipment has to be disposed of properly, so the materials can be recovered and not just buried in land-fill. Obviously it is hard to enforce, and the problem of phones, chargers, electronic toys, batteries, small kitchen appliances, etc., being merely thrown out with the ordinary rubbish if broken or last year's colour, is a serious one. It is not only potentially polluting, though I think that is a bit exaggerated; but also part of a more general, appalling waste by over-acquisition and loss of recoverable materials including precious metals.)
Benedict Arnold 