Treehouse Tips: Buy In Bulk, Larger Containers

You can also purchase larger containers, like 1L yogurt containers instead of little cups, in an effort to reduce packaging waste. In the yogurt example, although these little cups are recyclable, you can reuse the bigger containers in various ways before recycling them. Do your kids love orange juice? Buy a larger jug and reuse smaller bottles for individual servings. (Check out my blog post on ideas for reusing food containers.)

Treehouse Tips: Reuse Plastic Food Containers

Hey everyone…I’m Ida, from the Foodtree team and I’m going to be sharing frequent lifestyle tips here which relate to living a sustainable life. If you have any tips, send them to me at tips@foodtree.com. The first tip is here, in case you missed it!

If you are a frequent buyer of yogurt and margarine, you find yourself accumulating a lot of durable plastic containers. You can either toss them into the recycling bin, or you can wash and reuse them!

These plastic containers are surprisingly durable and made of easily bendable plastic that is comparable to Tupperware. And you know what else? The lids of sour cream, cream cheese, and large yogurt containers can all be used interchangeably! It’s good to keep in mind that containers that were made for holding cold foods such as dairy products would ideally be reused for storing cold foods, and not hot ones.

Also, it is not a good idea to microwave these containers because toxic compounds would likely be released from these containers into your food at high temperatures.

One way of reusing yogurt containers of all sizes is by turning them into planting pots by  drilling or cutting several holes on the bottom of the container. Use them for planting vegetable seeds indoors before it gets warm enough to plant them outside, or just use them instead of buying planting pots.

Margarine containers are very durable and can come in handy in the garage by using them to hold nail, nuts, and bolts. If you are using multiple margarine containers, it might be a good idea to label them with a permanent marker to help with your organization.

Plastic containers can be recycled, but only so many times before they also end up in the landfill. By reusing them, you can save yourself a couple bucks and contribute to greening the environment!