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

Ilona · 22 August 2014 at 11:44PM

Key fobs made out of old credit cards.

Ilona

Ilona · 22 August 2014 at 11:56PM

Growing plants in my old boots.

Ilona

Ilona · 23 August 2014 at 12:03AM

Shopping bag made out of cat food pouches. Sewn together and lined.

Ilona

Ilona · 23 August 2014 at 12:06AM

And another.

Just a few of the things I make with my rubbish. I collect all kinds of things that people would normally throw away, to use in my art and craft work. I like to find a second and even a third use for things. Too much is thrown into landfill.
Ilona

skeeter93 · 23 August 2014 at 12:07AM

I have learned so many things in the last year, and while saving money and reducing clutter, our rubbish output seems the same. It's on my list of things to work on. We give excess to the charity shop or freecycle, and I have started to cut things up for rags. I am red hot on using leftovers from the fridge before they go off (much to my family's horror when they get served coleslaw crisp or tzatziki pasta bake), freezing extra portions, and lately finding friends with fruit trees instead of buying from the shop.

Some of our waste is unavoidable... clearing a house that is so so cluttered, there are things that nobody wants or are in such bad condition they need to be thrown. At our new house we will have a compost bin for food scraps, and some vegies in pots. One thing I do have now is reusable paper towels! They work quite well, unless people use them all and don't put them in the wash...

GreyQueen · 23 August 2014 at 6:47AM

:T Wow, Ilona, love your crafts.

I have a shopping bag (Doy bag) bought from Hoxfam trading years ago which was made in the Phillipines by a womens co-operative from juice sachets. I have to say that I have never worn or carried anything in my nearly 50 years which is such a conversation-starter. Complete strangers come up and want to know where it was from, cashiers always remark on it.

I shall be sizing-up the catfood sachets as possible raw materials next time I'm over at the parental home as their mogs go through a fair few of them and their LA doesn't recycle them (I emailed and asked).

We were having a training session at work about changes to the recycling in our area and there was lots of good feedback and knowledge shared about stuff. I think the recycling peeps were quite astonished at how knowledgeable and interested customer services were as individuals in recycling and re-using and how much trouble we took with stuff of our own. Info was shared among colleagues about composting in small flats and freegling random things, it was very productive and made me feel all warm on the inside.

In our area, you can pay for bulky item collections of furniture, applicances etc, but we always encourage callers to think about charitable donation and Freegling as if the item is re-usable, we would rather not see it wasted.

I'm such a saddo that I'm trying to get a trip up to visit the waste transfer station to see how it works from the inside; why should schoolkids have all the fun? :rotfl:

Tony's_wife · 23 August 2014 at 8:00AM

ZeroWasteWeek wrote: »

What a great resource you have there; really inspiring - thank you for sharing and keep up the great work. I might share a couple of ideas on my site if that's ok.

Please feel free to share anything that you think might be useful before this beautiful world of ours is swamped with rubbish. x

Mojisola · 23 August 2014 at 10:22AM

Tony's_wife wrote: »

Please feel free to share anything that you think might be useful before this beautiful world of ours is swamped with rubbish. x

My OH takes a bag with him whenever he goes for a walk and collects the cans and bottles he finds along the way which then get recycled through our collection boxes and the local area is all the nicer for it.

Lilyplonk · 23 August 2014 at 10:30AM

GreyQueen wrote: »

......... We were having a training session at work about changes to the recycling in our area and there was lots of good feedback and knowledge shared about stuff. I think the recycling peeps were quite astonished at how knowledgeable and interested customer services were as individuals in recycling and re-using and how much trouble we took with stuff of our own. Info was shared among colleagues about composting in small flats and freegling random things, it was very productive and made me feel all warm on the inside.

In our area, you can pay for bulky item collections of furniture, applicances etc, but we always encourage callers to think about charitable donation and Freegling as if the item is re-usable, we would rather not see it wasted.

I'm such a saddo that I'm trying to get a trip up to visit the waste transfer station to see how it works from the inside; why should schoolkids have all the fun? :rotfl:

I'd love to get involved with some kind of Recycling Training/Crafts etc - wish our local authority were doing something similar

.

Would love to visit a local Recycling Plant

.

I was most disgusted when, after doing it faithfully for around 5yrs, the Council stopped our Food Waste Recycling Scheme :mad: ............. I've approached all 'my local gardening neighbours' but none of them do their own compost. I've made a start on sorting my own garden - getting it into a 'usable' state is proving to be very hard graft - but my biggest problem about making my own compost is the fact that I'm absolutely petrified of worms.

GreyQueen · 23 August 2014 at 11:31AM

It was for us council staff, so that we can be prepared to advise the public when some changes to the recycling services (improvements) roll out over the next few months. We've found some markets for stuff which wasn't saleable before so can now take it. :j

The best thing to do is try to eliminate the waste before it happens, the next best thing is to try to recycle responsibly. Can I just take a moment to tell people that rinsing bottles and washing containers really does count, as the fewer contaminants in the waste stream, the better the price for the goods.

One contaminated bin can poison a whole truckful of recyclables in such a way that they'll be rejected for recycling and end up in landfill. This impacts on the profitability of the scheme and its probability of continuing.

If you're not sure why your bin got rejected, do call the council and ask. If you're not sure what you can recycle in your area, and the handouts/ council website don't tell you, please email them and ask. Better to do a little prep than risk undoing lots of good work but putting the wrong stuff into the recycling stream.

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

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