with all due respect, claire, please don't "ball up aluminum foil and throw it away". aluminum is almost completely recyclable without any degradation. put it in your recycling container with other aluminum waste like cans.
sorry to get up on a soapbox, but it takes almost no extra effort to seperate recyclables from other waste.
anywho, back on topic: my siblings and i used to joke that you could tell the age of, and how many snacks that dad had gotten out of a hunk of cheddar cheese by how many layers of plastic, aluminum foil, and rubber bands were wrapped around the remaining piece.
nowadays, you're supposed to let cheese breathe properly inside a container. he was probably only causing it to mold up more quickly.
on a more serious note, i also remember dad using the engine oil removed during an oil change to kill the weeds that grew on a small easement next to our yard. i later learned that small strip of land was directly over a shallow aquifer.
i remember eating raw ground beef and hot dogs, raw eggs blended into chocolate milk, and even drinking the blood, er, intracellular fluids from steaks as a kid. i guess my norwegian mom had a lot of faith that the food she brought home was fresh, or at least kept at temps more suited to a fjord.