Recycling ideas - have u got any to share?

What a great idea about using the extra calendars! I recycle paper grocery backs and newspapers by using them for gift wrap. With a pretty bow or tied in some colorful ribbon, they look really nice. When I am done with books I'm not going to read again, or when finished with magazines, I pass them on to others to enjoy. Junk mail makes good "scratch pads" for children or adults. And if you buy ice cream in the plastic "buckets" they make good pots for plants after putting a few wholes in the bottom to allow for drainage. And the lids are a good thing to set the new pot on. Plastic containers that hold butter, cottage cheese, etc., can be washed and make a good way to store leftovers, or to freeze berries for the freezer. They are also handy for sending leftovers home with others, since they don't have to worry about returning them. Karen

nice idea there. i have used an old desk calendar which very beautiful designs and "recycled" them into book markers. i had them laminated and they look very nice. i gave some of them to friends. i am always into recycling of things. when i was in my elementary grades, i used to practice my sewing skills and i have made out my own short pants from the lower portion of denim pants of my father. the old house dresses of my grandmother and mother were made into skirts or my dresses. i just add some modern thing on them and they look as if they were originally mine. i don't throw away my outgrown dresses. i re-sew them to fit my daughter. i also sew together extra cuttings of clothing materials and i have made blankets from them. anything that i see is old and left lying idle and unused, i always find a new way to recycle them. just last week, we "ransacked" our clothing cabinets and found so many unused clothing. those that i found that are really of no use to us anymore, i placed them in boxes and give them to relatives in the province. the next person will be happy to have them ... these clothing are still very usable and still look new. the tetra pack tinfoil wrappers of juices are kept and saved. we sew them together and we made bags out of it. lots of things can be done by recycling. it just needs an imaginative and artistic mind to spark that enthusiasm.

The notebooks are a great idea. I'm sure there's many children out there in need of supplies. Maybe you could also start a fundraiser to sell your handcraft to raise some money for school supplies. Random thought there. What my mother did when I was younger was use brown paper bags to wrap my books since it was required for school. When the school year was over, we'll just recycle the paper. Maybe the neighborhood children would need their schoolbooks wrapped?

I wonder sometimes if what I do can be called recycling. My clothes are most of them antiques. Yesterday, I had to go to the doctor, so I had to dress up. I wore a white sweater that is about 20 years old at least, a very elegant woolen pant (15 years old but I changed the style a couple of years ago)and a beautiful knitted jacket I bought 7 years ago. Put earrings, donned some nice perfume and there was the princess I collect run panties and make soft nice pillows. And I ALWAYS cook at home from scratch so leftover are another dish. I use the dog food bags to put the cuttings from the garden that are too hard to beciome compost. I remember when kids were little I covered text biooks with saved paper from Christmas. I roined and they were as good as new.

Before, it had been the practice in our family to re-use the unused pages of our notebook. What we do is we gather them and tie them using a thread. In that way, we can same money for buying another notebook. We also make use of the plastic containers of sold juices as our dispenser for drinking water.

I'm not sure either if you can call it recycling what I do. I reuse everything i can at least twice. Clothes I change around to make them current to the style, any type of plastic containers I use for growing plants in my garden. Painting if I don't like them anymore I paint over them and make something different. A friend of mine if going to have a little baby girl soon so currently I'm making little fluffy outfits for the girl out of leftover materials and I use some of my old soft sweaters.

I also used glossy and beautiful paper from old calendar and magazines as covers for books. I also used them for craft project. Tons of things can be made if you look good enough. The blank pages from old books can be compile and bind and you make new book out of it. You can make pretty cover for it and your children might love to accept it. They can do whatever they want with it (though I doubt they'll use the pretty 'new' book only to calculate, it might even become their diary)

Recycling papers and plastics can be artistic. Create new boxes, bags or even pencil holders with your children. You get to teach them that trash is ART.

I use the extra calenders for each of my kids. This way they can each see what their schedules are with out getting confused by all the miss match on mine. We also use the pictures in collages. I like scenic ones for big pieces and animals are my kids favorites.

I do what most do and keep my plastics and papers and garbage separated into bins. My apartment doesn't make recycling an easy task (the only place to recycle are at the dumpsters around the back of the building) but its definitely worth the trip to help the world. I don't usually reuse items, but it seems like a great way to be artistic and sen a positive message to visitors or children. I will definitely look into following your footsteps. Keep it up!