Upcycling: an awesome way to recycle

Last week we talked about the importance of including recycling in your overall waste management plan. This week, we’re going to talk about another important piece of a good waste reduction plan called upcycling.

 

Upcycling is when you find a creative way to transform household items that no longer serve their original purpose, into something new and practical.

With our end goal being the overall reduction of waste, re-purposing items is essential to stop them from ending up in the landfill.

You can find items that you already have around your house to upcycle, or you can upcycle new things that you buy. Almost every item in your house can be upcycled and transformed into anything you might need.

Items that can be upcycled include but are not limited to: toilet paper rolls; broken crayons; CD holders; socks; mason jars; wine bottles; corks; wooden pallets; picture frames; bicycles; paper clips; Tic Tac containers; old musical instruments; tennis rackets; keys and much more. The possibilities are endless.

If you’re the creative type, you can probably come up with ways to reuse old items on your own. However, if you can’t think of anything there are lots of books on the topic, or you can search the Internet. That’s how we found the ideas that we’re going to share with you below:

Turn Toilet Paper Rolls into Seed Starters

Step 1: Cut vertical quarter inch slits into the bottom of your toilet paper roll and fold them down so they overlap to create a bottom that will hold the soil

Step 2: Fill the roll with moist soil and leave half an inch at the top of the roll

Step 3: Sow one seed in each roll

Step 4: Transplant the tubes about 2-4 weeks after the seeds have germinated

Source: www.yougrowgirl.com/toilet-roll-seed-starter

Turn Wine Bottles into Flower Vases

Indoor-VaseStep 1: If desired, remove label from bottle

Step 2: Paint, decorate with twine, newspaper, and anything you have around your house. The idea is to use items that you would already have in your house, and not buy new things, creating more waste

Step 3: Insert flowers and enjoy

Source: www.popsugar.com

There are endless possibilities to re-use old items so think twice before throwing something away. You might just be able to use it for a completely new and practical purpose.

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