Don't just throw them away...

you know those huge huge milk bottles and orange juice containers etc

the bigger the better

cut the tops off so you have a big pot fill full of soil and plants

hang on the fence once the trailing plants have trailed and they look lovely dotted all over the fence

I confess to being a closet hausfrau ..... have been using supermarket bags as bin liners for the last ten years. Purposefully, I bought a kitchen bin which is just the right size for using such bags. Also, I tend not to take bags from supermarkets and bring my own shopping holdalls. An anomaly! However, friends and colleagues give me loads of theirs. So there is a steady supply of these bags.

In terms of dealing with junk mail, I tend to open them, sort out which bits can go into the recycling pile, and which bits e.g. the window envelope which cannot be recylcled becomes trash. Then the envelopes etc I save up in a neat stash and use these to line the bottom of my kitchen bin as well as put into the bottom of the bin liner (carrier bag) when I change it in order to absorb excess moisture from the rubbish. (Dripping bags of rubbish are not very nice.) Most junk mail envelopes are a little waxy on the surface so that's handy for keeping moisture in the bag and not leak everywhere.

At the office, I save things like bubble wrap and other packaging materials. They always come in handy at a later date and are otherwise expensive to purchase. The wrapper paper for realms of photocopying paper, when undone neatly i.e. not torn, I save for myself to use at home. I put a large sheet of paper, which is a little waxy and thick i.e. good for holding moisture, under my chopping board so any debris can go straight on to it. At the end of chopping, I just wrap up the lot and bin it. A neat and tidy way to work in the kitchen.

Hey Leafy Lou!

That's so cool that you also save stuff like I do. (I am not alone, at last!)

I used to work for an investment bank where the stationery always came in white jiffy bags. Most people just threw them into the bin when they have taken their stuff out. I saved a big stash for myself, in various sizes too. Then when I did a spate of selling on Amazon earlier this year, these saved jiffy bags came in handy and it costed me nothing i.e. my selling profits were improved.

I think this thread is a good example of sensible and responsible consumption!

Coffee grounds and egg shells work too. But don't put too much in otherwise the soil might become too acidic.