Recently, my brother Phil 
wrote in his journal how he continues to reuse his plastic food storage containers, even after the little tabs break off, making them inconvenient to use. He observed that I would probably think that was just like him (which I do).
I pointed out to him that he might be interested in the Ziploc brand containers, which are designed to be inexpensive enough to be disposable, but good enough to be reusable. He replied that if by "interested" I meant "horrified", then I was right. He hypothesized that they would use half as much resources to make, but be useful only a tenth of the time. I theorized that it seemed equally likely that they might use only a tenth the resources, but last half as long. He was skeptical.
I remember that the Kalamazoo Nature Center used to require the use of reusable lunch packaging when I was a counselor there in the 80s. Phil was probably a counselor there in the 70s and they probably had the same requirements then. I don't know if they required it in the daycamps in the 60s -- I never was a camper there, but Phil was. I remember that I got a plastic sandwich container at that time and used it all summer. It was never very satisfactory though -- it wasn't actually quite big enough, so you had to mash your sandwich to make it fit. I think I still have that container, but use it to keep dice in.
Basically, I have limited experience with plastic containers. What experience I have with plastic containers suggests that I usually lose them (or their lids) fairly frequently -- I've never had one last so long as to have the little tab break off. I almost never pack a lunch anyway. It would be nice to say this is because I can just walk home for lunch (which is true), but the fact of the matter is that I usually go buy lunch at the campus center. There I am, destroying the earth, one paper plate at a time.