reuse

You are currently browsing articles tagged reuse.

How To Recycle Everything Wrong

December 1, 2009 in Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle by Jennifer | 1 comment

Recycling is not all that tricky, but some people waste a lot of time doing stuff they shouldn’t. For example below are some surefire ways to recycle incorrectly…

recycle wrong

  • Crush all cans carefully – waste o’ time. Nowadays you don’t need to do this step. Recycling centers take un-crushed cans happily.
  • Toss greasy and food ridden cardboard into the recycling bin. Sadly, this can mess up an entire load of recyclables. Recycling center machines are fit to take on grease and grime. If you’ve got sticky, messy, greasy paper you need to toss it not recycle it.
  • Don’t sort the recycling – some recycling centers will sort if you don’t but others will just toss bins full of mixed goods which does no one any good. Set up a home recycling center and sort your recyclables.
  • Be a perfectionist about food in jars – the machinery at the recycling center will zap that excess mayo or peanut butter out of a jar. In fact, if a lemon is stuck in a beer bottle or you can’t remove food from inside a narrow container you can still recycle it.
  • Fail to recycle glossy paper – most recycling facilities do take old magazines and other glossy paper now. Check to be sure, but don’t just assume you can’t recycle it.
  • Recycle before you re-purpose – recycling actually uses a fair amount of energy. IF you can re-purpose an item first, you should.
  • Toss anything into the bins – many items need to be recycled in a different manner than your recycling center can deal with. For example, toys and dishes and the like should go to the thrift store, CFLs need to go to a CFL specific center, hazardous waste is a whole other issue, and food can be composted. Don’t recycle willy nilly.

And the number one best way to recycle wrong – don’t bother at all – who cares if you trash the planet?

Six Ways to Re-purpose Common Household Items

June 20, 2009 in Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle by Jennifer | No comments

One of the greenest things you can do is purchase long-lasting products and then find ways to re-purpose them once they’ve served their usefulness. After re-purposing, there’s recycling. However, if you’re creative, you can first find new uses for almost anything before recycling. Here are ten ideas…

[image via Sprig]

Re-purpose coffee cans: Use old larger cans to make amazingly lovely planters. See how! See even more Recycled Garden Containers at Mother Earth’s Garden.

Re-purpose that old spice rack: You know those sit-on-the-counter spinning spice racks? Most folks don’t want those anymore because they take up valuable kitchen real estate. I know that many folks have switched to in-cupboard or wall mounted spice storage which means there’s a ton of these spinning spice racks hanging around. You can re-purpose yours to hold beads, sewing odds and ends, stickers for the kiddos, rock collections, little kid hair supplies (barrettes, rubber bands), and more.

Re-purpose bubble wrap: Obviously, you can reuse bubble wrap to send new packages, but you can also use it in your fridge veggie and fruit drawers as a liner to prevent tossed in produce from becoming bruised.

Re-purpose a tablecloth: Vinyl or oilcloth tablecloths aren’t so eco-friendly, but if you’ve moved to cloth tablecloths, how do you re-purpose your old ones? By making a lunch bag of course. Or make three or four for the whole family – also makes a great gift.

Re-purpose a leaky old garden hose: Into a much better, more eco-friendly, soaker hose.

Re-purpose old bedsheets: I like the idea of making a body pillow, because they’re cozy, but you can also use them to save energy in the summer if you live in a humid area. Take your old sheet, dip the whole thing in water, wring out so it’s not drippy, and hang across your window in the early morning. The air coming through the cool, damp sheet will take the sting out of summer heat and maybe allow you to turn down the AC. See 20 more ways to use old bedsheets.

You also might like… How to reuse toilet paper tubes – handy reuse tips for kids, criminals, and more – not completely a household item, but I bet you’ve got lots.

What are some of your best ideas for re-purposing household items?

In Faucet Water Filter for Green Homes

March 4, 2009 in Uncategorized by Jennifer | 3 comments

We look at water issues here often. Mainly, I think because water consumption is one extra easy place to make an eco-difference. A lot of water conservation consists of tiny steps to implement OR small actions on your part (i.e. turning off the sink while brushing or taking shorter showers). We’ve looked at drinking water before, and how to keep it green. Such as drinking from the tap or looking for filters with less packaging. Recently I saw these in-faucet filters that last way longer than typical faucet mounted filters, which could reduce the amount of waste filters can create.

Some ideas:

Moen Chateau Kitchen Faucet with ChoiceFlo Filtration in Chrome: This is an under the counter filtration system that looks like a normal faucet. There are two separate water channels which means you can get filtered and unfiltered water from the same faucet. PLUS the average filter lasts 6 months or for about 750 gallons of water. That’s better than most other filters which seem to last about 3 months or so.
Read the rest of this entry »

What Are Your Green Goals for 2009?

December 24, 2008 in Holiday by Jennifer | No comments

With New Year’s almost here, it’s likely you’re starting to think about your goals. Do you have some green household goals that you’d like to work on in the upcoming year? If you’re looking for ideas, here are some good ones:

Go green in 2009 by…

Ditching toxic household cleaners and chemical based home air fresheners.

Improving the air quality in your home.

Green your kitchen java for the entire year! Coffee is a great place to start if you’re looking to go green your lifestyle.

Drinking tap water, or at the very least buying a water filter over bottled water.

Starting a compost routine.

Only buying sustainable home furniture and decor.

Giving your baby a fresh green start in life.

Pledging to reduce, reuse, and recycle more at home.

Planting some trees around your house or in your neighborhood.

Taking shorter showers.

Conserving electricity around the house.

Do you have another green home goal? One I didn’t mention? Leave a comment about your green goals for 2009.

Oh, by the way, my green goals are as follows:

1) Recycle all the toilet paper tubes – this was actually my goal last year. I’m great at recycling everything but the tubes still sometimes end up in the bathroom trash vs. the recycling. I’ve improved since last year, but this is an ongoing goal.

2) Cook more. This last year was nuts (seriously) I bought more packaged foods than maybe ever in my entire life. That’s not great eco cooking. It’s much better to buy less packaging, and cook closer to the earth meals.

At Home Recycling – What You Can’t Recycle

September 13, 2008 in Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle by Jennifer | No comments

When recycling at home, it’s smart to know what is recyclable, but just as important to know is what’s not. Sometimes placing non-recyclables in a bin can get a whole bundle of actual recycling goods tossed, because not all facilities have the time or inclination to sort.

Sorting recyclables is something you need to do at home, before your recycling bins are picked up and emptied. Following are some items you don’t want to toss in your recycling bins…

Wet cardboard can jam recycling sorting machines at recycling facilities and may mess up an entire load of recyclables. It’s better to allow wet cardboard to dry before placing it in your bin. Also, covered recycling containers or bins with slotted covers can protect your cardboard from getting wet curbside.

Plastic lids on juice containers, jelly jars, soda, and more cannot be recycled. These lids are made of a different sort of plastic than the bottle itself. Remove all lids so that your bottles don’t end up being trashed by the recycling facility.

Special items like batteries, old car parts, computers and more can’t usually just be stuck in a recycling bin and carted off. These items need to be specially handled. Most of the time facilities are available that can recycle special items, but you’ll need to look for a specific local recycling center.

Stuff you think you can’t recycle – but can: Recycled items don’t have to be soapy clean. Rinsing your jars, cans, and bottles in water is good enough. If you say add a lemon to a bottle of tea or beer, and you can’t get it out, it’s still ok to recycle. You don’t need to crush cans (as people did in the past) and you also can leave labels on.

To learn more about recycling at home read; What Can & Can’t be Recycled

Quick Tip for Water Savings

August 16, 2008 in Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle, Save Energy, Water by Jennifer | No comments

Showers and baths use an insane amount of water. To conserve more water, cut five minutes off your daily shower. To double your efforts, try placing a small plastic bin in the tub as you shower. Use that water to water plants, wash the car, or mop the floors. The two easy steps above can save upwards of 375 gallons of water a month!

What Can & Can’t be Recycled

July 25, 2008 in Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle by Jennifer | 3 comments

Yesterday we looked at Getting back to Basics – Recycling in Your Community – where to learn about recycling in your community and neighborhood.

Today let’s take a look at what can and can’t (in most cases) be recycled…

recycling truck

What you can, in most cases, recycle:

Paper

Glass

Plastic – you’re limited in what plastics you can easily recycle. You honestly should not be buying plastic drink jugs and milk jugs (paper or glass is better). Overall, the best plastic tip is to buy as little as possible.

Misc garbage – clothing, old paint, computers, and batteries are just some of the misc trash you can recycle. It depends on your area, but if you contact Earth 911 you can find a place to recycle these sort of items.

Metal – tin cans, soda cans, and foil items can usually be recycled.

Things that are difficult to recycle: (difficult, as in some areas offer recycling for said items, and some may not. Also people who are creative can recycle many items.)

Aerosol cans made from combined materials.

Some juice boxes.

Squeeze plastic bottles – like ketchup. Glass is a better option.

In some areas light bulbs, broken glass and pottery, foam, plastic silverware, plastic bags, carbon paper, and more can’t be recycled. Try to limit buying what can’t be recycled in your community.