I think it’s safe to say that most of us have rubber bands bursting out of our drawers, mostly acquired from the produce we buy at the market. What on earth to do with all those pesky little guys?
If you don’t want them at all, take them to your local farmer’s market. You will likely find farmers thrilled to take your rubber bands (and berry containers, egg cartons, etc.).
I, myself, have found them to be invaluable for knitting. I like to knit with bulky yarns, which usually means using large needles (size 13 and up). Standard stitch markers usually do not fit onto larger needles. I’ve found that rubber bands make fantastic stitch markers, however, on those larger needles. I also use them to hold my needles together when I’m working on a project and want to be able to travel with it without worrying about it slipping off the needles! Try it – you’ll never curse your rubber band supply again! 
Here are a few more tips from green maven, Sophie Uliano:
Do It Gorgeously – Rubber Bands from Gorgeously Green on Vimeo.
LOL, that gorgeously green lady cracks me up. But great ideas! We use rubberbands around plastic food bags that done have the resealable “zipper.” My grocery store very courteously puts rubber bands around the egg cartons, lest they pop open, but then I get a new rubber band every time I buy eggs. And I think I have about 30 empty egg cartons piled up under the counter…you say I can take them to a farmer’s market? I’m saving some of them for projects and to hold the eggs I’ll be getting from my parents when their hens mature, but I don’t think I’ll need all of them. Oh, and I’m keeping my berry containers for when I go berry-picking. Last year I piled them all in one big container, and they got crushed.
@Lisa C: I am on the mailing list for several Oregon farmer’s markets and all of those are sending out emails asking people to bring in egg cartons and berry containers, etc. so they can be reused. I can imagine that those markets in the valley were probably doing this for a while now. I can only imagine that most of them will happily take old packaging supplies for reusing. Keep me posted on that, too, if you get a chance!
i use them as hairties.
@Julia: Great idea! My only problem is that the uncoated elastic tears my hair. (Makes me wonder if there’s a crochet or knit pattern out there for making rubber band covers…hmmmm….) But if it works, that’s awesome!