Fancy Up That Trash!

So you’ve probably heard about the 3 R’s of waste management, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, right? Most would agree that they’re good words to live by if you’re a concerned citizen looking to do good things for the environment. Were you aware, however, that the 3 R’s are a sequential list where Reducing is better than Reusing and Reusing is better than Recycling? That’s right, you read it correctly. While Recycling is great, starting from the top of the list is way better. So maybe you think you’ve already Reduced your waste as much as possible? That might be so, but I bet there are many things that you could still do to Reuse.

One way to Reuse is to Upcycle. While this is an interesting term to be sure, all it really means is that you take that old and worn junk, and transforming it into new, and sometimes better, products that can be used for gifts, or a number of other things. So what kinds of things can you make? You know all those plastic bags from the grocery store, turn them into sewable fabric. That drier lint that builds up, transform it into clay for molding. Sure Upcycling may take some time, and you will have to be creative, but just think of the wonders you could make while cutting your trash contribution. Give it a try, the benefits could surprise you!

For more about Upcycling check out these links:

http://www.naturallysavvy.com/naturally-green-faq/what-is-upcycling

http://toponlineengineeringdegree.com/?page_id=116

To make plastic bag fabric try this link:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plastic-Bag-Fabric!/

To learn how to create clay and other things out of drier lint, try this link:

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf184073.tip.html