If you're going to use CD media for temporary use, at best use the reusable CD-RW discs. At the very least, leave the disc session open and use up it's capacity before contributing it to the choking piles of waste. Or, hold on to the used CD-R discs, and shingle your house with them when you have enough.
We humans already throw a shameful amount of material in the garbage, so any trash which can be easily prevented ought to be. Whenever I see someone throw an aluminum can in the trash, I want to kick them in the teeth.
USB flash drives are nice, but it's hard to match the 700MB capacity of a CD. CD-RW is our friend, despite the fact that he's a little slow.