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!