“Reduce, reuse, recycle.” It’s good advice. But for many of us, the “reduce” bit is probably the trickiest. Now that you have all this extra stuff, what to do with it? For starters, reuse as much as you can – don’t toss items that are still functional, like a mason jar that can be cleaned and used to store leftovers in the fridge. If an item can’t be reused, perhaps you can recycle it.
But remember that recycling doesn’t have to involve tossing something in the blue bin – you may be able to recycle it yourself. Here are some ways you can repurpose common household items into other objects you can use.
Plastics
“Plastics” is not just a famous line from the film The Graduate. It’s also a commonly recycled material. Big bottles of juice, soda, milk, or water often take up a lot of space in your bin. They also take up a lot of space online on sites such as Pinterest and Etsy where you can see the myriad ways people have transformed plastic bottles into something new altogether. You can use these bottles as functional items.
Big water jugs can be transformed into planters, glass bottles can become candle stick holders, or cut out the sides of various sized bottles and use them as storage for pens, pencils, or markers. One of our favourites is the plastic bottle sprinkler. Get a big bottle, poke holes in it, then find a secure way to attach your hose and you’ve got yourself a functioning and low cost sprinkler. Plastic bottles can also be a great medium for kids’ arts and crafts. Or embrace the DIY spirit and make your own arts and crafts.
Other ideas
Really, the only limit here is your imagination. With a little heat, you can bend old forks and spoons into decorative coat hangers. You can nail old ladles to wall and use them to hold tea candles. You can cut up old aluminum cans to form cookie cutters (be careful though, that aluminum can just as easily cut you). As we said, the only real limit here is your imagination.
Just remember, as much as you may try to reduce waste and repurpose materials, you simply can’t keep everything. For everything you can’t recycle, there’s RedBins. Garbage is still an unfortunate reality of our daily lives, and if you accumulate too much of it, we’re here for you. To set up a no-obligation estimate, simply call us any time at 416-RED-BINS, or order online by clicking, here.
