Your Grandma may be hipper that you realize. If she was American and lived during the great depression, then she knows all about recycling. She just thought of the concept differently. When you have no money, every tangible item becomes treasure, even trash. The old cigar tin becomes a jewelry box. The tree stump becomes a table. The ragged shirt becomes part of a patchwork quilt. Your grandmother probably called it "making do with what you have".
The only thing new about recycling is the use of the word. These days, when we think of recycling, we tend to imagine plastic containers, melted down and re-shaped into new ones. Glass bottles, ground up, fired up and blown into earth-saving packaging. We have nightmares about landfills of mountainous waste. What we fail to realize is that there's a lot more in those garbage heaps than just superfluous commercial packaging. There's old clothes and curtains and sheets. Broken furniture and electrical appliances. Miles of paper and metal. A vast profusion of evidence of a throw-away society.
There's a philosophy called Permaculture. One of the basic tenants of this philosophy is that everything in your home, on your land, has value. When you throw things away, you are throwing away your self-sustainability. The idea is not about collecting or hoarding but about re-using. Re-using so you don't have to keep re-buying. Permaculture is fascinating and there's much more to it than the re-use aspect. For the purposes of this article, let's concentrate on that re-use idea.
How does one re-use an empty bottle? You are tired of your old sheets and you want new sheets. What happens to those old sheets? That entertainment console is looking tired and dated and entirely too bulky for your light, airy design mood. Do you haul it away to the dump or do you consider the lovely wood from which it is made? What could you do with all that pretty oak or maple?
Do you own any recycling bins? Well, remember that wonderful wooden entertainment console you're so willing to caste aside? Has it got three shelves? Turn it on its side, attached three lids, paint it with bright colors and you have a one-of-a-kind recycling center for your kitchen or porch. Put your empty, clean plastics, glass and paper packing in a delightful unit that goes with your decor.
Do you have a pet? Do you recall those old sheets you want to get rid of? Why don't you use those old sheets to make puppy or kitty a special bed? You could stuff it with the filling from flattened pillows or shredded worn socks or pantyhose. Or forget the pets and make something for yourself. Shoe and clothing bags for your closet. A quick cover for an outdoor chair. Cases for you personal cares items like curling irons, brushes and combs. Add zippers to old pillow cases and turn them into liners that protect your pillows from the natural skin oils that seep through while you sleep.
How about those glass bottles, plastic tubs and metal tins? Glass bottles are really quite elegant. Find your sunniest window sill and set up a collection of glass bottles filled with fresh flowers and glass marbles. As for those tins and plastics, think organization. Make your desk drawer neater by using shallow tubs to store paper clips and stamps. Add some order to your garage or laundry room by using larger plastic containers for those the items that clutter those spaces. As for tin containers, what better way to pack away things like cotton swabs, loose change and other tiny treasures?
Are you beginning to get the idea of crafty recycling?
That breakfast tray your in-laws gave you is nice but you're never going to use it for breakfast. Don't fall to toss-out temptation. Cover a small pillow or padded mat with a fun print material, paint your tray a nice, matching shade and glue the pillow to to the bottom of the tray. Voila! A lap desk for your notebook or handwriting. Speaking of laptops. Were you aware of the environmental damage that's caused by junked computer hardware? Did you know that with a few easy instructions, you can turn that old laptop monitor into a digital picture frame?
As for old paper, there's nothing that can't be made with papier mache. Why lets stacks of old magazines and newspapers gather dust when you can fashion decorative bowls or pieces of art from a little water, paper and flour? Bonus if you use leftover house paint to embellish your creations.
These were the skills that got your grandma through hard times. This was the waste-not want-not mentality that precedes the modern concept of recycling. It's about re-use as opposed to merely disposing of trash in an environmentally responsible manner. Crafty recycling embraces the philosophy of Permaculture. You learn to see the value of every single thing in your home, in your life. You come to realize that the less your leave for the garbage man, the more you leave for the planet. The less you throw out, the less you have to buy. The less you have to buy, the less that needs manufacturing. The less manufacturing, the easier it is to breathe the air and drink the water.
New is how you see it. Your favorite easy chair has great bones but the fabric is shot and out of style. Instead of getting rid of it, recover it and suddenly, you have a new easy chair. Before you throw away or buy, take a moment to think about crafty recycling. Can't you convert that rusted soup pot into a whimsical planter for your garden? Is it really necessary to stuff those old CDs into the trash can when you could make a wicked lamp using them as a base? Think past ordinary notions and try some crafty recycling.