Don't dispose of it just because it's disposable

We live in a disposable society. From food containers to cameras, modern technology has made life much more convenient. But I've noticed that we sometimes throw things away, even if they haven't been used. Two examples:

1. I had six people over for take-out Chinese food. When we were finished eating, we had approximately 100 packets for soy sauce, duck sauce and spicy mustard! The restaurant had put these in out bags... we didn't take any extra. Typically, people throw them away.
2. At a lunch buffet today, we had various mayo-based salads and sandwiches. The host offered utensils packs. You know the kind... fork, spoon, knife, salt, pepper and a napkin all hermetically sealed. I only needed a fork, though. Should I throw the rest away?

To be upfront, neither case is great. Individually packaged sauces and throw-away forks are wasteful, but, I had fairly little choice in the matter. So instead of throwing the currently unneeded items, I saved them. With the Chinese food, I was able to convince my friends to give me their sauces to save them from the landfill. In the case of the catered lunch, I saw many people throw away everything. I didn't want to sound like a raving lunatic and yell at them, but that is my motivation for this post.

Before you throw away something that is perfectly new and clean, consider saving it and using it later. You might be able to save a little money with this trick. Post your comments with other ideas of disposable things you might save for later!

Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Duck_sauce_packets.jpg