ecotip
Upcycle It Repurpose Just About
Anything
Repurposing possessions saves money by reducing consumption and helps the environment by taking pressure off landfills. Com- mon strategies include using old newspapers for stuffing or wrapping and used tin cans to collect cook- ing grease. Author Jeff Yeager, in his book, Don’t Throw That Away, expounds on such everyday “upcy- cling”.
His tips include using a ba- nana peel to shine shoes, sprinkling crumbled eggshells in the garden as fertilizer and natural pest con- trol, and stuffing dryer lint inside empty toilet paper rolls for fireplace kindling. Instead of merely recy- cling plastic mesh bags, nest a few together and use them as a kitchen
Chicken coop made from discarded scrap lumber.
sink scrub pad. Fill empty plastic bottles with water and freeze them to make the refrigerator more energy-efficient, and also to serve as dripless ice cubes for the family picnic cooler.
Before discarding old carpet, salvage the best sections to use in smaller spaces, like a bathroom, closet, car floor or pet house. Instead of buying new shelf liners, consider used gift-wrapping paper for kitchen or bathroom cabinets. Scrap lumber, tile and stones can be made into mosaic art designs. A cat scratching post exemplifies another multi-source (carpet and wood) upcycling project. While about 90 percent of U.S. households now have curbside recycling available, the amount of trash each American produces keeps growing. Ac- cording to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the average citizen cur- rently generates about 4.5 pounds of trash a day, totaling 600 times their body weight over a lifetime unless they seriously practice the three R’s of reduce, reuse and recycle.
natural awakenings September 2012
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