People in my dorm used them for art. One guy made a sculpture. Others microwaved them for a few seconds to get that spider pattern. Even with all the art, we still had buckets of them. What a waste.
I was so annoyed by those that I started trying to return them to the sender. What I didn't know is that "standard mail" (the bulk rate) doesn't include return postage in case the recipient doesn't want the item or there's a mistake with the item. So the post office most likely just discarded them and never sent them back to AOL.
Nowadays when I get junk mail I put a first-class stamp on it before attempting to bounce it back to the sender. Theoretically this should work, although there's no guarantee the postal workers will cooperate.
I do the same thing, but instead of spending my money I use junk mail that includes return envelopes (e.g. credit card offers, etc). Discover Card must have boxes of junk mail from me by now, I hope they like paying for its transit.