I like to recyclye most of the items that can be used for more than one time of send them to the second hand store. I recycle the bags from the grocery store by folding them up and putting them in a paper towel tub. The coffee grinds, egg shells and kitchen greens go into the blender to be put in the garden or house plants. Old t-shirts are reused to clean with. What do you recycle or reuse?
I'm a big supporter of recycling, reusing and upscaling. I always take my own cloth bags for use at a grocery store or supermarket, but when I'm given a plastic bag I will always reuse it. I use a recycling scheme for cans, papers, plastic bottles and I put glass jars in the glass recycling unit. I furnished my apartment with unwanted items that have been given away. I buy second hand clothing and other used items. I also donate back a lot of books and any items I no longer need. I'm saving vegetable scraps to make stock for soup, and after cooking vegetables in a pan I reuse the water for a sauce.
Since my house sits on a bed of coal ash, I am an avid composter. I've spent years working at building the depth of soil up in my yard and gardens, so it didn't make sense for me to haul compostable material to the transfer site, and transport compost back home. I have a couple of compost piles in the back of the yard, near the no-longer-used railroad track. Since I use my compost to build up the soil, rather than for gardening, I compost everything that will compost, including food scraps, kitty litter, unused leftovers, paper towels, junk mail, newspapers, magazines, cardboard boxes, etc. I shred much of it, but learned that when there is too much shredded paper, it tends to clump into a large mass that takes a long time to compost. I have had more success when I use a lot of intact cardboard boxes, filling them with shredded paper mixed with food scraps and other waste, closing them up, and placing the boxes on the compost pile. During the spring, summer and fall, I layer the whole thing with leaves and other green waste periodically. In the winter, it gets quite high, and I sometimes have to dump water on it, so that it can freeze and hold everything in place. Since there are layers of snow, ice, and compostable material, there are spaces beneath that are warm enough to continue composting throughout the winter, and the intact boxes leave air spaces that speed things along. In the spring, after a couple of weeks of thawing, the pile collapse inward, as there are gaps left from the material that has been composting throughout the winter, as well as the now melted snow and ice. Of course, some stuff falls outside the pile so a bit of cleanup is usually required. Since it sometimes takes more than two years for a complete compost, I really need three piles. Now that I've perfected the idea, and I have one compost pile ready to spread in the spring, I am going to add a thin layer of concrete at the bottom, to keep the roots out, and create one additional pile. Once the pile that I am currently working on is ready, I'll concrete the base of it, as well. We have a hundred acres of forested land a few hundred miles north of us, and I enjoy the wildlife that is on the land, so I recycle other things, like furniture that might otherwise be discarded (usually cheap fiberboard stuff that my wife insists on buying), by using it as wildlife habitat beneath brush piles throughout the land. For example, about five years ago, I built a bear-sized enclosure that I then completely covered with brush and tree scrap. From cameras that I set up in that clearing, I could see that our bear (a male that seems to always be on our property) would carry food into it, and that he would spend hours in there sometimes; and finally, last winter he hibernated there. In other parts of the same brush pile, a pair of snowshoe hares have made their home.
I recycle cans and other recyclable material. Such as medals and cardboard. There are more things that can be recycled however in terms of compensation it be best to stick with cans. The lowest I have been compensated for a can is 5 cents for 1. This is a low rate. I also recycle paper re-using it, as well as clothes and technology. Every day more and more things are becoming recyclable. I would not be surprised if everything was recyclable meaning reusable through innovative modification.
I recycle plastic, glass and paper as well as items like batteries and empty ink cartridges. Other unwanted items which are usable usually get donated to charities while broken clothes and towels get cut up to use as cleaning rags. Right now I need to dispose of a computer monitor which is no longer working and needs to be replaced. Fortunately a local computer shop does trade-ins every February, so I'll have to see what new ones they've got and whether the reduction they offer is worthwhile. If not, the shop that made my computer will take the old one for recycling, but I won't get anything back for it.
Here in our household we recycle almost anything but primarily plastics, glass, and cans because we love to lessen the trash heaps of California aside from their compensation value we get from those materials.
I like to take the plastic bags that bread comes in and use them to store food instead of purchasing baggies. My daugther thinks I am crazy for wanting to save these bags. but when we run out of baggies I can go to my stash and pull out my bags to save what ever.
I recycle just about anything I can. Common items like plastic bags and containers, or glass bottles get the most recycled use. I stopped composting when I started raising my torts because there really is no food scraps anymore. I have a recycle project for this spring. I found a DYI for a rabbit hutch made from pallets, I want to make a larger hutch for my bun to go outside for the warmer months. i researched new ones that come in a kit, but think the recycle idea for the pallets is really a good idea. I also have a bit of an odd recycle thing I do. I keep little lengths of yarn, decorative strings and even dog hair and put it outside in the spring for nesting birds. Usually songbirds and the cardinals will grab the brighter strings for the nests. We have some morning doves that return every year and will use just about anything. Someone told me recently that it is bad luck to let birds build nests from human hair, I never heard of that and have always put hair out for them. It is cold in the spring when the first hatch-lings come and the hair especially is important to keep the chicks warm. baby don't mind she is losing her winter wool anyway, I always figured in the wild it would just go to the wind anyhow. I have also been keeping a pail with broken dish pieces. I want to do a mosaic in my garden with the glass. i have seen a few examples online and I really like the idea. For whatever reason we have always managed to crack and break dishes in this house without even trying. I always felt it a shame when some of them were so pretty. i did a bunch of mosaics already for under the gutter spouts, very nice and easy to do. They look pretty in the rain, the glass shines like jewels.
That's a great idea! I'd like to do that on my land up north, where we have loads of birds, and I might try it if we actually have spring this year. In order to get to our land in the spring, I generally have to walk four miles, since the road is muddy, but it's a nice walk.
I have seen those mosaic bowling bowls online. I would like to put one in my yard as yard art. Here's one I saw online.
I recycle almost everything in one way or another. My favorite thing to do is take something that others would throw in the trash and create something new and beautiful with it. I am a proud trash-picker, as well. I've found perfectly usable items that people are putting out with the trash and then upcycled or refinished them. I use these items in my house, give them away to family and friends, and even sell items on occasion.
I do not have much to re-cycle because I don't buy too much. The food scrapes that I do not want for soup stock or just don't like are tossed over the balcony to the chickens - they seem to eat everything they can and the rest goes into the trash can. There are groups of people who come by daily and sort through the trash and they will take anything that has use and will sell it somewhere.
I think that's a form of recycling. Many years ago, before recycling was as popular as it is today, I was between jobs for a couple of weeks. I was living in Southern California then, so I used my Datsun pickup to recycle cardboard, metal, and glass, but mostly cardboard. Except for the chains, most stores weren't recycling cardboard yet so I could just pick it up behind the store, and cardboard would stack very high on the truck as long as I tied it down. I made $200 in one day but, of course, that was an unusual day.
It is funny how we can manage to make a few bucks between jobs. When I was in Phoenix I tried my hand at picking spring onions - OUCH! Took me all day to make enough for a six-pack of beer and although it was not high on my priorities, it sure tasted good. Then I went to the orange grooves and started to collect the discarded cans and bottles. A lot easier and much more money.
Most food scraps that are edible are 'recycled' to the stray kitties or other animals. I donate a lot of what is no longer working for me, if it's not something I'm going to sell. I donate those items to various charities, as well as through Freecycle and TrashNothing.