101 Inventive Ways to Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle

I have a guest Bloggy friend today. Her name is Dinah Wulf from DIY Inspired. Here is an article on several crafty things you can do to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle this week. Stop by her site for more inspiration.

By Dinah Wulf:

I have always been eco-conscious, so to speak, but I never really thought about it.  Now that I have been blogging, and have it all down in front of me (and posted all over the web) I have gravitated toward recycling and repurposing ideas for the main concept of DIY Inspired. 

It’s funny how things work out.  I even have gone on the anti-plastic bag bandwagon and use only recycled bags at the store.  I get irritated if someone hands me a plastic bag or I forget to bring one inside.  Next thing I know I am carrying my Toddler and all my purchases without a bag!

Since this has been an important topic for me, I thought I’d share 101 crafty and inventive ways to reduce, reuse, & recycle and turn your trash into treasure! Just click on the links to view more!

• 6 Ways to Upcycle Old Sweaters
• 9 Ways to Reuse Toilet Paper Rolls
• 4 Ways to Repurpose a Mailbox
• One Way to Reuse an Old Spice Rack

• Ways to Recycle Newspaper
• 14 Simple Ways to Reuse and Repurpose Regular Household Items
• 6 Ways to Upcycle an Old Suitcase
• One Way to Recycle an Old Book

• 4 Ways to Reuse Old Boxes
• 6 Ways to Recycle Maps
• One Way to Reuse Old Mason Jars

• 5 Creative Ways to Repurpose Old Books
• 5 More Creative Ways to Repurpose Old Books
• One Way to Recycle an Old (and ugly) Painting

• 6 Ways to Recycle Bottles and Glass Jars
• 7 Amazing Ideas for Reusing on old Media Cabinet
• 9 Ways to Repurpose Used Pallets
• 6 Craft ideas made out of Paint Sticks

Phew! That’s 101 Inventive Ways to Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle! The crazy part is? This is a fraction of it…I had to stop myself at 101!

Recycling

We are massive consumers who produce a lot of waste. What if you could reduce your waste by 50% just by recycling your garbage? It doesn't take much to recycle things we use every day. In order keep the planet and us healthy we need to recycle the items we consume

 

Here are 10 items to recycle to eliminate from your landfill:   

1. Aluminum cans
2. Steel Cans from canned fruits and veggies
3. Cardboard including cereal boxes
4. Paper – newspaper magazines
5. Plastics – Milk jugs, check with your local recycling center 1 & 2 are most popular
6. Glass containers
7. Clothing Donate or sell to a resale shop
8. Cooking Oil – into diesel
9. Printer cartridges
10. Compost plant waste

Composting

Let’s take a little time and talk about the last one, compost. Do you know all the things that grow  can be composted? Most people don’t realize they can do this every day. This is one of the easiest steps to do in saving our planet.  If you eat fruits or vegetables and you peel them you can take those peels and throw them in your backyard. You can even throw your coffee grounds in the compost heap. It is great if you can have a designated spot to throw the scraps and then keep turning it to make sure the new stuff gets to the bottom.  I love the recent post by my Bloggy friend Miz Helen with her new Garden Compost Helper Schreck.

The decomposing matter starts to come alive after a few weeks. Bugs and insects will be drawn to the moist environment created by all that plant matter. This also will become warm with all the bugs crawling through it and will steam in the winter. So don’t be alarmed.

The bottom of that pile is the compost. This soil is rich in nutrients the insects and worms have broken down. This is the stuff to put on the garden before you plant. This is key for a successful organic garden. After your garden has been sprouted make some compost tea to feed the roots of the garden. Here is the easy recipe:

Compost tea

I know this sounds delicious, but do not drink it. This is for your garden only. Get a 5 gallon bucket and put about 6 inches compost soil in the bottom of the bucket. Then add hot water to fill the bucket. If you can’t guess, that is around 5 gallons. Let this steep for about 5 minutes or so. Take this nutrient rich water using a watering pitcher to water the plants. The garden will use these nutrients to grow great veggies.

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I am not an expert gardener, but I have read these tricks and use them in my garden to get things to grow. Sometimes it is trial and error. I have had my share of error.

Do you have any things you recycle? What are you growing in your garden this year?

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Ways to Reduce Waste

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REDUCE WASTE!

Have you ever visited a landfill? It is overwhelming the stench and the mountain of waste we create as a society. I used to drive by one for years. It started out like a small hill and I wondered what it was. Then I noticed the hill began to grow over time. The big yellow movers moving the trash around could be seen at the top along with the white birds circling feeding off the trash we have thrown away. Then I thought how am I contributing to this mountain of trash and what are some ways I can take action to not increase the growth of this mountain?

 

There are many ways to reduce your waste in landfills. Here are a few I do around the house.

1. Stop buying bottled water. Not to mention you are drinking water stored in plastic, but it is water. We use our filtered ice cold water from the fridge and it is great and super cheap. I have purchased each kid their own water bottle, so they each have their own to fill whenever they want. They do not have to ask for water. Here is a great website for more information on plastic water bottles.  Green Upgrader.

2. Bring your own bags to the grocery store. There is no need to get more plastic bags when you probably have a closet full of them at home. I will even show you how to make your own bags using these plastic bags in a post coming soon. If you do use plastic bags, recycle them. Most stores have a place where you can bring back bags to be recycled. My daughter has a place to recycle these bags at her school.

3.  How many paper towels do you use a day? Try to stop using them for everything, even if they are FREE. Did you know you could make your own wipes? These are super easy and FREE. You should already know I love FREE. Any T-Shirts you have that you want to get rid of. Cut a square using both sides of the t-shirt and sew together. To clean them just throw in the wash and hang dry.

4. Buy from the bulk bins at the store. These are items that do not have any additional packaging to be stored on the shelves. Buying these products reduces cardboard, plastic and glue. And these items are usually cheaper, since you do not have to pay for the packaging you are throwing away anyway. If you notice I buy a lot of bulk items at Sprouts every week.

5. What are items you can recycle? Have you started recycling in your home? Take a look around to see what you throw in your trash can. Can this be tossed in the recycle bin? Cardboard boxes such as cereal boxes, pasta boxes and meals in a box can be recycled. Check with your local recycling program to see what plastics can be recycled in your area. There is a number on the plastic carton and different areas recycle different numbers. Usually 1, 2 and 5 are the most popular.

For a family of five we use about one 20 Gallon trashcan and one 20 gallon recycle bin a week. We only take out the trash about once a week. How often do you take out the trash? How can you reduce your waste?

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Reuse Ideas

In keeping with the theme for this month of Earth Day today’s topic for Money Saving Monday is REUSE IDEAS. One of the best things you can do to save money is to reuse items instead of tossing them after one use.

REUSE IDEAS

One item that I reuse a bunch is plastic zip baggies. Most of the time I put things like muffins to freeze or snacks in these. I simply wash them out and let them dry and use them again. I will do this several times before being tossed. This helps reduce waste in the landfill and also helps my budget by not having to buy baggies as frequently. As I have said before I hate spending money on things that get used once and then are throw away.

Another item I may use twice is aluminum foil. If I am baking biscuits or something that really doesn’t stick to the foil. I will wash it off and reuse it again. Then I will fold it up and place it in the drawer and then flip the sheet over and use the other side. I normally use foil on my baking sheets, so the baking sheets stay nice and clean and provide an even baking surface all the time.

If you are a couponer and you print lots of coupons like I do, you have a lot of left over pieces of paper. I will take these and save them for the kids to color or to make additional craft projects. These little pieces of paper are stored by the art supplies and can be used for cards or whatever they can imagine. We always have scrap paper for a project.

 

Have you seen these fabulous things people have made using toilet paper tubes? I have been in awe myself. I even made this fabulous little mirror for around $3.00. Here is the link to my toilet paper tube mirror project. I think when summer is here I will have more time to make some of these little projects. We will see.

One last awesome reuse idea is to repurpose clothes. This is another thing I am pinning a lot of lately. Taking old t-shirts and using them to make skirts, shrugs or tanks. These are awesome little one hour projects that look so cool and easy to make. I can't wait to give these a try.

Is there anything you reuse to save money? I would love to hear from my readers. Leave a comment below. If you have a recipe or crafty linky party, share your links on my Linky Parties Page.

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Tips 4 Tuesday

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I have a few tips to share with you about not throwing things out. My wonderful husband and I try to avoid throwing anything away. If something is about to spoil or we don't think we will use it in time, we just pop it into the freezer. Why let something go bad and have to throw it away. You might as well take that money and throw it in the trash that you purchased that food with. It is basically the same thing.

Do you ever make a pot of coffee and have some left over? Don’t throw it out. My husband and I love ice coffee. We make a little extra during the summer, so we can have ice coffee in the afternoons. We take the left over coffee and put it a plastic cup or make ice cubes out of it. We use plastic cups, since this is water and it will expand and break a glass container. We then put confectioners sugar and creamer and blend to make a great tasting frappe or just have iced coffee. The confectioners sugar dissolves quickly in ice coffee and you don’t have to worry about the grainy texture from granulated sugar.

What do you do with the left over heels of a piece of bread? Again don’t throw them out. There are several great uses for these. I put some butter on them and toast them in the toaster. Then I place them in my food processor to finely chop them up. I never need to buy bread crumbs. Another thing I do with the bread is make croutons. I butter them and cut them into cubes. Then place them on a cookie sheet and put the oven on broil. Watch very closely as these can burn quickly. I even sprinkle some seasonings on them to make them extra tasty. The kids all time favorite is to save these for duck food. We also keep a bag in the freezer and put left over hot dog buns, hamburger buns or bread crusts in there. When we want to go to the park we automatically have duck food ready for the kids to feed the ducks. This also make a great time for family photos.

My husband and I try not to throw anything out. I hope you will be able to use these tips in the future. Do you have any great tips on how to save or use the extra things you might consider throwing out? I love your comments and I would love to hear from you.

Tips for Tuesday

Close

I know with coupons it is easier to buy the smaller package especially when it's free. I do this. I don't like that there is more waste since I am buying more from a smaller package. In order to compensate I do recycle a lot of my waste.

All boxes are recycled in my home. We have an old trash can in the laundry room that is specifically for recycled items. Our city has a recycle program where we have a separate trash bin just to place our recipes items. This is nearly as full as our trash can every week.

I now have a way to make a little extra cash for the family, since there is a recycle machine in our Kroger parking lot. It has a loyalty card and after you put 100 cans or plastic bottles you can pick rewards, including gift cards. If there is no card you can still get a free coke at Kroger with a purchase over $5.00. I have gotten free Coke with no problem. I have only put in 62 items so far, so I am not sure what your choices are until I reach 100. I am very excited that I am able to recycle and get rewarded for doing so.

Also I look for ways to use things we have. You can use the pasta sauce jars to store bulk items you get at the store. Be sure to wash in the dishwasher and lable what you place in the jar. Then you have instant storage.

Here is my reuse of toilet paper tubes. Doesn’t this just look fabulous. I can’t resist telling my friends this is out of TP tubes and a mirror. No one would guess. I followed directions from Homemaker in Heels. She has a fabulous site and a wonderful home from items she has made. Please check her out. There are several other things I would like to make using the leaf design you get from cutting the tubes.

We also try to use washable plates and silverware more than paper plates and plasticware. While this may use more water, we are not putting more trash in our crowded landfills.

Do you currently have any ideas to reuse items? What do you recycle? How do you make the world a better place? Link up any ideas you may have on your blog or share your comments below.