Your home is a treasure trove of items that can be reused, recycled, or upcycled. When you change your perspective of throwing things away (where is “away” anyway?), you’ll find yourself looking at everyday objects in a different light. We’ve highlighted 10 everyday items you can breathe new life into…
Plastic Water Bottles
- For starters – reduce your use of water bottles by installing a water filter or a water purifying system. Carry a reusable water bottle for water on the go.
- Replace the water-displacement brick in your toilet cistern with a plastic water bottom to bring down excess water flow.
- Cut off the bottoms of water bottles and plant seedlings in them.
- Check Pinterest for upcycled bottle craft ideas.
Aluminum Foil
- Place foil behind plants in the shade to reflect light on them.
- Place a vessel with water and food over a foil platter in a sunny spot. Keep some foil at the back of the vessel as well and you have your own solar cooker.
- Use leftover foil to pack any item that needs waterproofing, such as photos, old film, seeds and such.
Old CDS, DVDS, VHS Tapes
- Make a creative scarecrow using CDs. The light reflected will keep birds and critters away from garden.
- Recycle them at a local arts and crafts center, where they use them to make gift bag bases or drop spindles for spinning wool.
- Create a collage of reflective CDs for your wall or ceiling.
- Use old VHS tape to bind posts together in your garden instead of buying plastic rope.
Plastic Bags
- Line your wastebaskets instead of buying plastic bin liners.
- For projects like painting, slip a plastic bag over the paint can lid before replacing it so dirt or flakes of dried paint on the lid’s underside won’t fall into the liquid.
- Save them to wrap fragile items for storing or shipping.
- Recycle them at supermarkets and at certain curbsides.
Old Cell Phones
- Check Earth 911 for how to recycle a cell phone in your area.
- If it’s still an in-demand model, sell it on eBay.
- Clean up your old phone, get a new cover, and gift it to someone who needs it.
- Disassemble the phone. Recycle the battery and other parts at computer or electronic recycler units.
- Use the manufacturer’s Take Back program when you upgrade to a new phone.
Old Keys
- Decorative keys can be shined up and used as pendants, earrings, and belt danglers. You can even use a set of keys to create metal belts.
- Donate your keys to a charity such as the Keys For Kindness in America.
- If you have too many keys, donate them to a metal recycling unit.
Old Jeans
- Donate the jeans you no longer wear to a charity or consignment shop so someone else can use them.
- Create bags, aprons, skirts, patchwork quilts and such items with old, unwearable jeans.
- Donate torn jeans to the rag bin at your local household waste site. The cotton in the jeans will be reclaimed for industrial use.
Junk Mail & Envelopes
- If reply envelopes are in good condition, reuse them to send your own mail. Cover any logos or return address with your own return address labels.
- Keep used envelopes on hand to keep garden seeds, or tape them below drills to catch dust.
- Shred the envelopes and use them to create organic mulch in your garden.
Wine Corks
- Cut wine corks to make notice board trivets out of them.
- Decorate your fridge with cork magnets.
- Use them to cork bottles of homemade sauces, oils and preserves.
- Cut wine corks into circles, color them and thread them, interspersed with other beads, into necklaces and belts.
- Prop up garden pots with wine corks to aid drainage.
Hair Accessories
- Wash, dry and use soft plastic scrunchies to bind creepers to support poles in your garden.
- Use plastic scrunchies in place of rubber bands in your kitchen
- Use hair bobbles to hold back curtains
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