For Earth Day, I’m recycling some of my previous posts on recycling. Enjoy!
Repurpose everything
- Here are lots of ways to Recycle and repurpose in your garden
- There are lots of uses for those plastic mesh bags. Here are just a few.
- Paint and decorate jars to store herbs in.
- Make reusable grocery bags. Many stores will give you credit when you bring your own bags, so they may just pay for themselves over time.
Speaking of grocery bags, here are the instructions for a mesh produce bag that I made a while ago. It cost just pennies and took one evening to make while watching TV.
As I mentioned in a recent post McCalls 803 is my favorite pattern for grocery bags. But here is a free version for a
close look alike. Besides being free, you can adjust the dimensions to fit the fabric you have on hand or your own personal preferences.
Even if you do use plastic grocery bags, be kind to the earth and don’t throw them away. Make “plarn” and crochet something useful out of those bags. Try these pot scrubbers or this scrubby There are lots of patterns for bags, purses and more using this “plarn”.
Isn’t it crazy all the creative things people are doing with these plastic bags? I even got in on it and made my own grocery bag (which my son now uses.) Grocery bags made out of plastic grocery bags…kind of like meta-recycling.
One more way to re-use plastic
Finally, here’s an outdoor camping rug I made to keep feet from getting muddy while showering outdoors. I made the plarn for this from the bags that package multi-packs of toilet paper came in. It’s much thicker and sturdier than grocery bags and I figured it would stand up to more wear and tear in the outdoors.
Practicing Green is a win-win-win for everyone. You save money, you reduce what’s in the landfills and you get useful items you might not otherwise have.
Happy Earth Day!
My husband’s aunt, who is 84, has a set of placemats made by her mother (husband’s grandmother) that were crocheted from the polka dot Wonder bread bags. They were crocheted back in the 60’s and are still occasionally used today.