Zero Waste Week - tell us your best upcycling and re-use tips

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Aril wrote: »

I use microfibre cloths for all my cleaning and washing up so I don't have j cloths to throw away. Old clothes are also pressed into service as rags.
Arilx

Thanks for sharing Aril. I find the microfibre cloths are fab - I'm sure mine are about 10 years old! I used to worry because they're not natural fibres, but I think they have outweighed that by now through the amount of use I've had from them and the fact you don't need to use anything other than water.

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Ilona wrote: »

I was a volunteer for a Scrapstore, I visited factories which manufactured something, and begged to look through their skips to recover items that could be used for teaching and crafting purposes. It was skip diving on a big scale and I loved it.

Scrapstores are an amazing set up - what a shame yours closed down. I think of waste like a gardener thinks of a weed. Gardeners say a weed is just a plant in the wrong place. I maintain rubbish is a resource in the wrong place

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GreyQueen wrote: »

Y'know, coming past the communal bins at my block of flats, I was itching to get in there and sort stuff; the general waste bins are full of things which belong in the recycling bins right beside them.
Mind you, if I started, I'd never stop

haha! I hear you - you're officially a rubbish geek I once worked with a family of 7 and it was an amazing experience. We worked on their rubbish over a couple of months and they reduced it from an overflowing wheelie bin once a week to needing their bin emptied every 6 weeks. It was so heart warming to work with a family that wanted to make a difference despite ill health, kids in nappies, a cramped house and a tiny budget...

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Aril wrote: »

We also have a local charity which collects toothbrushes, biscuit wrappers and other eclectic items. [/QUOTE]

Wow, really? Is that the PCF or another one? I'd love to hear more about them. And great idea to share milk bottle tops on Freecycle for others to use for charity. if you're in the South of England, a company called GHS will collect bottle tops and donate to charity on your behalf...

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Winter_Phoenix wrote: »

When new neighbours move into the street, they usually seem to put out their removal boxes for the recycling collection (which is often a day or more late here, so the boxes get ruined if it rains). I now collect any which are in good condition, and put them on Freecycle. I've never been stuck with boxes for more than a few days - there's always someone moving house who is really grateful for them!

:TFabulous! See what a little thought can do to make a difference. Thanks so much for sharing your inspiring story x

skeeter93

Coleslaw crisp is basically coleslaw, with breadcrumbs and cheese sprinkled on top and baked until melted. Sounds gross, but I was determined to use up the leftover coleslaw and found the recipe online. It was actually quite good! It was homemade coleslaw with thick vegies, not tiny diced bits.

I reckon half of our rubbish is tea bags! Hehe. I will keep an eye on it, some of it is plastics that can't be recycled here (though I never am 100% sure which bits can be) and food waste - we will get a compost bin once we've moved.

Mojisola

skeeter93 wrote: »

I reckon half of our rubbish is tea bags!

we will get a compost bin once we've moved.

Most teabags have plastic in them which means they don't break down properly in a compost bin. If you tear them as they go into the compost bin, the contents will be composted and you can sieve out the bags before you use the compost.

ZeroWasteWeek

skeeter93 wrote: »

Coleslaw crisp is basically coleslaw, with breadcrumbs and cheese sprinkled on top and baked until melted. Sounds gross, but I was determined to use up the leftover coleslaw and found the recipe online.

I disagree - that sounds lush. Mind you, we eat some weird stuff here. We hold a CORN night (Clear Out Refridgerator NOW!) where everything about to grow a green furry jacket is bought out and plonked on the table - buffet style. You get some interesting combinations

GreyQueen

I'm a waste geek, I own up to it.

I did actually take a brand-new pair of really heavy duty black rubber gloves (auntie gave them to me) and went over to the worst-offending communal bin area and had 5 bottles out of the boxes in front of and into the glass bin, and re-arranged some stuff from one bin into the other. I've left the gloves outside in my (now redundant) bin cupboard and will don them whenever the urge to interfere in waste and recycling matters becomes too overwhelming.

Re Lush, is it all of their stores who take in the bottle tops or just some of them? I'd like to know before wandering in like the village idiot.............:rotfl:

I'm at the parents' place for the next few days and we have been doing stuff and I have gone into a rack of mini-drawers sorting stuff by type and found some superannuated batteries which need to go into the battery recycling bank. I have also taken some bubblewrap, brown paper and pre-loved padded envelopes to my kid bruv the online bookseller to use in packaging his sales.

Once upon a time, I was walking thru the city centre in the afternoon when I came across a firm of shop-fitters replacing the plastic fascia thingummy of one of the chain stores. The new bits came swathed in bubble-wrap and the bubble was wrapped in lovely strong brown paper. There was a large pile of this already, with some more sections left to be unwrapped. Yards and yards of the stuff.

Well, what could a packaging womble with an end-user like kid bruv do but fasten on her brass neck and ask if she could have the stuff? The workmen couldn't have been nicer and I waddled off with a double-armful of both kinds of stuff and the advice that if I came back in about an hour I could have the rest.

Which I did. It was a scream rolling/ folding that lot up into manageable portions in my flat, but I did it and transported it across the county on the coach when I next visited him.

Ahem. If anyone is in burning need of bubble, boxes or paper, you could do far worse than cruise the shopping streets about 3-4 pm when they're putting out the stuff neatly packaged for their commercial waste contractors. Best to ask the shop if you can have it first, though.

Tomorrow afternoon, if we're spared, I shall be raiding the woodshed for my cache of pre-loved wood for a section of timber for a project at the allotmentino. Tell ya, if anyone stole my luggage off the bus, they'd be very surprised indeed.

Upsidedown_Bear

GreyQueen wrote: »

IRe Lush, is it all of their stores who take in the bottle tops or just some of them? I'd like to know before wandering in like the village idiot.............:rotfl:

All of them