Mrs Green’s six stories on Sunday
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Reduce, reuse and recycle to make the world more green
There are many people writing great posts about reducing, reusing, recycling and composting, and doing their bit to promote greener living. Today I’m going to share a little link love with some of my favourite stories and finds from this week.
Ladies and gentlemen, boy, girls and cute animals everywhere, I present you with Mrs Green’s six stories on Sunday.
Reuse your toothbrush
Tina McCarthy over on Eco Salon shares 12 clever uses for old toothbrushes. My favourite is to use one to clean out your keyboard. Using a toothbrush makes it easy to clean between the keys. This is one cleaning job that had always eluded me; just how could I clean between my gruby keys. Well now I know and there are 11 more idea waiting for you too!
Recycled skateboards
Made from old and damaged skateboards, these earrings from btc elements are one-of-a-kind.
One side of the earring is smoothly rounded off, revealing the grain of the maple wood. The flip side is flat and shows off the scratched up deck artwork.
Originally, each skateboard is made from 7 layers of pressed maple wood. Lindsay Jo , designer of these recycled earrings says, “There’s so much that goes into making a skateboard and so much that goes into riding one. I wanted to give them a new life.”
Sony ericsson Green heart recycled mobile
Coming to a store near you in the near future is the Green Heart range of mobile phones from Sony Erricson.
The Sony C901, available at the end of June features bio-plastic housings, recycled plastic keypads, electronic manuals instead of paper (which saves 90 percent in paper usage, as well as giving the product more compact packaging) and environmentally conscious packaging.
Make your own reusable bag
Ever fancied sewing, knitting or crocheting your own reusable shopping bag? Over on Tipnut, you’ll find 35 free patterns to keep you busy!
Buy a reusable bag!
On the subject of reusable bags, Christi has been busy crocheting tote bags from old carrier bags! Each bag uses about 60 carrier bags and each design is unique, handmade and takes around 8 hours to make.
Since beginning this project Christi has saved around 3000 plastic bags from the landfills and oceans.
If you’re looking for an original gift or are a collector of funky bags, head on over to her fat bottom bags site and take a look!
Recycle denim into insulation
Over in the US, National Geographic are asking kids to send in their old jeans and other denim clothes to create the world’s largest collection of clothes to recycle.
All the denim will be donated to COTTON. FROM BLUE TO GREEN, who recycle jeans into insulation, which is used to help build houses in places that have been damaged by hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters.
It takes about 500 pairs of jeans to recycle enough denim to insulate one average-size U.S. house.
That’s it from me; I’m off to pull up some weeds and hopefully some food for lunch. Have yourselves a wonderful day and there will be more fun tomorrow as things ramp up towards WRAP’s Recycle week.
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Last week my school sent a circular for creating Artwork for Refugee Week next week….”We need lots of milk bottle tops, wine bottle corks, pringle tubes, Al foil from dishes etc……….Bliss…..my waste footprint has gone down massively, resource footprint up….as I’ve been collecting all these since christmas.
All to Reuse in Art.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
hmm.. Rob, where will the artwork end up though?
am a tiny bit sceptical of school efforts such as these…
Mrs Green, some of these are interesting!
not sure I’d let any of our toothbrushes near a keyboard though..? /maybe if you wash ’em really really well? hmm..?/ we do use ’em longer than originally intended, I guess..
(& reuse for cleaning bathroom or such..)
I think I’ve seen specific long-bristle narrow brushes (for cleaning sewing machines?) that could also be used for keyboards..?
/hate to admit we probably never used ’em – & upon further inspection, our keyboard could use some cleaning! :)/
So thanks for the reminder!! 🙂
HI Mrs Green,
Reusing plastic toothbrushes postpones their eventual waste end-up which has value. Using a wooden toothbrush is Zero Waste and therefore a sustainable choice. These can be used for other cleaning too but home composting is the end-point.
On the subject of teeth, toothpaste tubes are difficult to avoid with producers turning a blind eye to the waste problem. Beth, from FakePlasticFish, suggests reducing the amount used for each toothbrushing. I have tried this myself and find it a very useful way to reduce waste, by postponing the inevitable.
Probably on a school wall for a year giving a reuse/refugee message, 🙂 and the education value /pupil fun has to be accounted for. They need different materials to work with, and this makes them ask questions on how they can use theses, redesign difficult questions. Also many plastic corks/milk bottle/foil/pringle tubes ..are not facilitated for recycling yet by local authorities; or you have to collect half a tonne of each prior to having market viability for recycling, which might take me 30-40 years for each,
Pragmatism over purism me thinks in this case.
I went to look around a local school and the very colourful walls in the toilets had been made from (or perhaps it was coated with ) plastic bottle tops. Hard to write on, easy to wipe off and mst importantly …. not boring!
@John Costigane: I’ve always been told a pea sized squeeze is enough. I hate toothpaste tubes. There used to be a kind of toothpaste in a tin like a shoe polish tin, but I can’t seem to even find that anymore.
Carole.
@Carole: Well done, Carole. The toothpaste makers deserve all they get with their arrogant approach to the waste issue. There are alternatives but none are as acceptable so we just have to put up until a company takes up the Zero Waste challenge.
Thanks for all the links – I like the 35 ways to make a tote bag. I’ve been crocheting for sometime now making a bag from plarn (plastic yarn), using plastic shopping bags cut into ine inch stips – oh its not hard to do, I just don’t do it too often.
I’ve been wanting bags for produce, and the ones I’ve seen to purchase from reusablebags.com are just too expensive – never thought of sheer curtains – I do think I have some in a scrap fabric pile somewhere.
@John Costigane: Hi John, we had a result from the foil comp, I wasn’t sure what to say about it as Mrs G mentioned perhaps covering it on the blog. I’ll email you if it doesn’t come up.
@Carole: Glad to see the competition was successful, Carole, Not bad for a first attempt. To get an outcome from the effort is ace. This kind of school activity is worth promoting to encourage others.
@Rob Whittle,Nail2: Hi Rob, you’ll have to send us a pic of the art – it sounds like it will be magnificent. And what a great way to reduce your own waste! As Layla points out, of course it will end up in the landfill eventually; but at least there is reuse and enjoyment before that fateful day.
@John Costigane: Hi John, the tips for using less toothpaste are good; we only ever use the tiniest amounts; likewise with laundry products, cleaning products and toiletries – I use the minimum amount needed to get the job done. Frugal too.
@Poppy: Love the sound of that wall, Poppy – a great way to reduce graffiti!
@Deb from Boston: Glad you found the article Useful, Deb – you’ll be able to crotchet and stitch to your hearts content. I bet I can guess what your friends and relatives will be having for Christmas this year 😀
@Mrs Green
They were all integrated/reused into Afican Face masks and art, the best being exhibited; otherwise the pupils took theirs home to hang on their bedroom wall. Very enjoyable