What do you use that other people don't?

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What do you use that other people don't?
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n

Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 211
Location: Lothian

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 05 9:56 pm Post subject: What do you use that other people don't?

We can take it as read, I assume, that the greenest thing to do is not to consume in the first place. That said, what do you use that other people throw away? Or to put it another way, what do you do which makes others think you are taking things a bit too far!
In our house we save the inner bags from cereal packets to wrap sandwiches in. I also save the kind of crisp packs which are silver on the inside, flatten them out, wipe, and slice them up to make silvery/coloured packaging for cushioning presents at Christmas. No one can see it's a crisp packet because it's been shredded just as a paper shredder would.
n

greenbean

Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 59
Location: Stirling

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 05 10:08 pm Post subject:

Hi n,
I like your recycling ideas. My mother-in-law thinks I am off my trolley, when at her house I take away bones from meals to make stock out of (she throws them away!), stuff out of her bin to compost (as she doesn't). A lot of my friends do not think about recycling or using up scraps of food, and they think I'm so weird for doing so. Yeah, I have a whole drawer full of gift wrap materials, they are all good for using again and again.

n

Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 211
Location: Lothian

Posted: Wed Jun 15, 05 10:16 pm Post subject:
I haven't tried the home made washing detergent, but we now use the tablets rather than liquid in the washing machine because a) the packaging is cardboard b) you can't slosh a bit extra in on a whim c) most importantly, we only use one tablet per wash, not the suggested two or more. I suppose this is reduce rather than reuse or recycle.

culpepper

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 638
Location: Kent

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 05 8:34 pm Post subject:
I cut up the loo roll inners to put in the compost. I keep our margarine tubs for plants,freezing,paint pallettes,craft projects etc I pick up the rubber bands the postman drops much to my daughters embarassment.

n

Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 211
Location: Lothian

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 05 8:51 pm Post subject:
big yogurt pots when cut into slices make good extra long marker stcks for seed rows (use permanent marker though or they will be plain white after a rainstorm!)

nettie

Joined: 02 Dec 2004
Posts: 5888
Location: Suffolk

Posted: Thu Jun 16, 05 9:04 pm Post subject:
From the rare occasions I have a take away, I keep all the chinese boxes for use in the freezer. My kitchen is also overflowing with empty 2litre water bottles cos I'm saving then to sell home made fly repellent for horses in!!!!

Behemoth

Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 05 8:08 am Post subject:

I use cut up plastic milk bottles as plant name tags. All gift wrap gets reused, especially those attractive but wasteful bags that things tend to come in nowadays. Friends have got wise to us and no longer write on the the labels so we can use them again and pass them on.

I don't throw clothes away, my office clothes all get reused as work/allotment clothes until they become rags. I'm sure I cause consternation ion the high street when I pop out for something while wearing them as I look like a deranged, dishevelled commuter who's just crawled out of a train crash.

On the whole people have got used to me saying "are you thowing that out" or " have you finished with it" or more often "when you've finished with it"...the only problem is that as they get wise to how bits and pieces can be reused around the house or garden they start hanging on to them.

Rikki

Joined: 09 Jun 2005
Posts: 35
Location: Bucks

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 05 8:23 am Post subject:
yesterday I bought two church pews from an auction. They're oak, and I plan to take them apart and use the wood for various projects.

Nanny

Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 05 9:00 am Post subject: what do you use?

we get offered things now that people are going to throw out....

"with all your animals i wondered if you could use......."

although i don't believe in hoarding - unlike mr nanny who would never throw anything away

if it looks like we can use it for a current project we'll have it off you..........so along witht he second greenhouse came the potting table, the old plastic water tank, the fish pond pipe and the several metres of cable conduit for the electrics and water works for the goat shed that is the next big construction project.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 05 9:38 am Post subject:

apart from fighting over the newspaper (firelighters and paper pots) I save loo rolls for planting peas and sweet peas in, plastic bottles to put round plants or incorporate into the watering system, and plastic pots that are bigger than the paper ones, or could be a slug/snail pub, net bags that onions come in (for putting pet fur out for the birds) milk cartons for freezing soup or stock, and for collecting worm tea in, bones for the stock and green waste for the worms (and hopefully compost sometime soon) ppolystrene meat boxes for planting salads and tomatoes in, plastic veg containers for seed trays, big plastic bags to use as cloches on the tomates (that the veg comes in) and ice packs for re-use camping. Just got a paper shredder, so I can compost that too. I bake eggshells for the worms or anti slug measures too.

That sounds quite impressive! So what on earth is in the black bag that goes out every week?

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 05 9:40 am Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

So what on earth is in the black bag that goes out every week?

Plastic wrap and dog hair

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 05 9:41 am Post subject:

Judith wrote:

Plastic wrap and dog hair

Not the latter in Casa Womble, the blue tits have that

Nanny

Joined: 17 Feb 2005
Posts: 4520
Location: carms in wales

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 05 10:15 am Post subject: what do you use............
less and less goes in the bin at my place.................. soembody gave me 4 lbin bags of plastic flower pots one friday just before my holiday......... thought i had better wash them before storage so started..................... i washed 750 flower pots........................took me 4 hours........ all nicely stored now but they were going to throw them away for heavens sake..........

Lozzie

Joined: 25 May 2005
Posts: 2595

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 05 10:46 am Post subject:

Scrappy dog-ends of soap get put in one of those little washing-tablet string bags and used like a loofah in the shower.

Any plastic pots I acquire are either used to germinate seeds or are given to local school/playgroup/nursery.

Old bath water is recycled as loo-flush with a bucket. I would NEVER admit that to my neighbours!!

When my compost bin is low I take my neighbours' kicthen waste. And garden too, sometimes. They just don't GET IT.

Old bread bags are used for sandwiches (at least till I perfect making my own ... **sigh**)

Bread-making disasters are often chopped up and frozen in said bread bags, to dig out for the ducks when we go for a walk. Have to remember to get them out the night before so as not to knock the poor fowl senseless with frozen croutons!

Lisa

Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 248
Location: Cheshire

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 05 11:57 am Post subject:

culpepper wrote:

I pick up the rubber bands the postman drops much to my daughters embarassment.

Arg, this drives me round the bend. DH wants me to either leap out and berate him or ring the PO and complain (but I am a wimp). Why can't they take them back and reuse them?
Lisa

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