Do You Recycle?

[Lollies]

I was just thinking about all of this and was wondering what sort of things, we as crafters, can do to help the environment.
I have a recycling box in my craft room where scraps of paper go and anything else I can recycle. And I always try to reuse things. But what are some other things I can do?
TIA
Lauren xx

I have also set up a poll to see how many of you do recycle :p

[Tracy-Stamper]

I always see articles about re-purposing packaging, but I've never actually done it myself :rolleyes:

I've also seen cardboard used a lot in projects.

[Cook22]

I'm voting sometimes. Yes, I keep scraps of paper - but sometimes I end up throwing them out because it's too hard to find what I want.
The serendipity squares technique is great for using scrap paper, though. Here's a link to a card I made; in the card description there's a link to how to do the technique. Serendipity Scraps by Cook22 at Splitcoaststampers. There are a few cards using different papers scattered through my gallery. It's fun, and if you have an hour or so to spare, definitely a great way of using bits up.
I do keep ribbons from chocolate and flowers. I've even used twine from bunches of rhubarb, too.
We get new telephone directories every year - I keep the old one, and use it for scratch paper to protect my cutting mat when I am sponging, or spraying fixative or spraymount or whatever. It still ends up in the bin, but at least it's been used along the way. We always used to use them for ironing the wax out of batik too.
There is one type of plastic that works as shrink plastic, and sometimes I've used that - but more for fun than anything else. It's not the most common one used in packaging, so you couldn't count on finding it just when you wanted it.

[Angelnorth]

I try to look at anything I'm about to throw in the trash and decide if it might be useful for crafting in some way. It's not going to save the planet single handedly but it's fun to find things you can repurpose.

I get quite a few things sent to me in boardback envelopes (I'm a proofreader) which is great weight chipboard and a sort of kraft colour - that always gets saved and used for die cut or scissor cut elements. Cereal packet board is useful for things with a bit of body, too - if it's not sturdy enough for what you want, you can stick a couple of layers together (useful for covers for mini books etc).

I save metal from tomato paste tubes (I know you guys usually buy it in cans but it's worth looking out for tubes as they're less wasteful if you tend not to use the whole can at once - you can just recap the tube and put it in the fridge ready for next time). The metal is soft enough to cut with scissors or dies and it embosses beautifully in the CBug folders and is a lovely rich gold colour inside the tube. Soda cans can be used too.

I can't remember the last time I bought buttons designed for papercrafting. Any piece of clothing that's worn out gets the buttons snipped off before it's trashed. If you use something like Copics or Sharpies you can tint a white button to match your project if you want to. I sometimes use the fabric from old clothing for papercraft projects, too (denim from old jeans can be great for those pesky masculine and teen cards!).

I store my cling stamps in CD cases which means I have the heavy clear sheets they came on originally - those make good bases for clear cards.

Pages from old books and magazines or sheet music can make interesting embellishments and backgrounds. Check out things like the gesso resist technique in the resources section for an idea for using magazine pages. Flowers or butterflies punched or die cut from old books or sheet music can look fun and whimsical or totally vintage!

Broken jewellery, mismatched earrings etc can give you some useful embellishments - it's worth asking in goodwill stores as they sometimes have those things that they can't put out for sale and they'll let you have them really cheaply.

Like Sabrina, I save stuff like ribbon or twine from packaging of things like chocolates and flowers (there's a running joke in this house about the chocolates that DH often buys me at the airport when he's been on a business trip - he has to choose the box by how useful the ribbon will be!).

Hope some of those give you some useful ideas!

[buttons2]

Friends know to give me out-of-date calendars and atlases (I had to look up what the plural of "atlas" is :>) to make envelopes. Some of you have probably received b'day cards in one of these creations.

Wanda

[vegaswife]

subbing! thanks for all the wonderful ideas!

[GardenB]

I have two waste baskets in my craft room, one gets the non-recyclable garbage, the other gets any recyclables, paper, plastic, etc. The recyclable one fills up much faster than the garbage one.

We are very fortunate to have excellent recyling programs where I live.
barb

[Crafter 4 Life]

I use those tins that packaged food items come packed in (i.e. cookies, tea, etc.) to sort my larger pieces of scrap. Learned a trick from one of the women in my church craft group - use those little pieces and make embellishments for cards yet to be made. When an occasion comes up when you need a card, just adhere one of your pre-made embellies and you have a card in just seconds.

I have a trash container on my craft table. (Bought it last year at the Dollar Store - large plastic basket with low sides) When it becomes full, place its contents with other recycleables in the designated bin I put on the street.

Use the cardboard from cereal boxes, facial tissue boxes, cardstock packages, etc. for the cut/emboss in 1 step with Nesties techniques.

I know I am not totally 'green' but I try not to be overly wasteful.

[Cook22]

Quote:

Originally Posted by buttons2

Friends know to give me out-of-date calendars and atlases (I had to look up what the plural of "atlas" is :>) to make envelopes. Some of you have probably received b'day cards in one of these creations.

Wanda

Oh yes, DH does that with all our old calendars - spends the whole year telling me what wonderful envelopes they'll make...or boxes. And old maps, too - I'd forgotten that.
Then there was the TLC last week, which was stamping on old soda cans. The Wizard worked great to flatten my tomato paste tube, so I bet that would work for taking the curl out of cans too. They punch beautifully, and next time I buy cider I want to try embossing.

[Inky Paws]

I'm in Oklahoma and I wish we had curbside trash/recycling pickup here where we could just seperate our trash to be recycled. To recycle you pretty much have to find a place that will accept it and drive all over town to drop the different items off, which puts more carbon emmisions into the air. I mostly repurpose items. All of our newspapers go to Safari's Sanctuary where I volunteer and are used to line the bird cages in the cold months when the birds can't be outside. We have a girl in the office whose husband works for Georgia Pacific Paper Co. so we bundle up all paper products that can be recycled and give them to her. I reuse plastic grocery store bags (I know I shouldn't even use them) for my kitty litter box clean up. Pop cans are donated to the local Shriners to raise money for hospital transportation to the Shriner's Hospitals for Children. My stamping paper scraps or "paper salad", ribbon scraps or any craft things I don't want or need go to a fellow SU demo that teaches disabled and special needs children and they do craft projects with them.

[lutheran]

I recycle everything all the time and have for years. If you looked in our trash bin on trash day, you wouldn't guess that it is a week's worth of trash for seven people. Everything gets recycled, reduced, reused. Go Green.
Mary Beth

[Cook22]

I did wonder was the original post referring to recycling and reusing on cards, or recycling in general. Round the house I do recycle / waste less much more than in the craft room. We have a collection of dry recycleable goods (paper, plastics, tins) every two weeks, and wet stuff (food, garden waste) every two weeks. They are both pretty much free, just an annual charge. Then we pay per collection on all the other non-recycleable stuff, and to take some types of waste to the collection centre. Things like bottles, batteries, small electrical stuff, old clothes are free.
If it didn't get smelly in the summer, we'd get by with only putting the wet waste bin out every six weeks, and it's about the same for the dry waste. And maybe once a month for the one we have to pay for. Then I look at people who put it out full to overflowing each one of the 3 weeks per month that it's collected, and wonder where all the rubbish comes from.

[jazzytobi]

i said no... BUT, you have made me feel so bad that i will go and get a seperate garbage can for paper only... i will be better, you will see!

[airbornewife]

I don't throw away any scraps. I have a basket on the shelf that I drop pieces in.. I either use it for myself.. or I have in the past put it in a box and given it to the Art teacher at my kids school.

[jazzytobi]

Quote:

Originally Posted by airbornewife

I don't throw away any scraps. I have a basket on the shelf that I drop pieces in.. I either use it for myself.. or I have in the past put it in a box and given it to the Art teacher at my kids school.

i don't throw away scraps either (i have my scrap bin on my table in rainbow order), but somehow the garbage fills up with minute pieces of paper....

[CAmomof2]

I put yes, I do every little bit I can. I tend to recycle anything that I can can. I'm even one of those "crazy" people who won't put batteries or electronics in the regular trash. Living in California makes it really easy. My recycling trash bin is as large as my "regular" trash and yard waste bins. When I visit my family in Mississippi or Pennsylvania I'm saddened at how few people recycle. It's just not as convenient as it is in California. My four and a half year old son knows that when he sees the recycling triangle on something we can put it in our bin if it's numbered 1-9. I'm proud of the fact that he knows as much as he does about recycling.

As for crafty stuff, I am not a grea re-purposer. I have the best of intentions but I just end up with empty formula and pringle cans sitting around gathering dust.

[Toy]

Here in Loveland, we have three types of garbage bins. One for regular (non -recyclable) trash, one for glass and yet another for plastics and tin. We, as a family, have been diligent about sorting our trash into the correct bins. We have even purchased separate tags for bags that cannot fit into the bins (they're fairly small). Not too long after we moved here, I witnessed the recycle collectors toss the bins into the SAME truck! It seems pointless that we are sorting out all of our trash and they end up putting it all in the same place anyway! :rolleyes:

Now we take most of our recyclables to the local recycle center.

[jutta]

I have a pretty crock on my crafting table that gets all of the bits of paper that are too small to be saved for another project. We recycle paper of all types, plastic, and the best for last, I have a composter that my daughter gave me. I have a pretty ceramic crock by my kitchen sink and large composter just steps away in the yard. That thing is amazing - a science lesson begging to be believed! I have been enthusisastically dumping all manner of vegetable matter ( no cheese scraps - that's what dogs are for!) yard waste and dog poo are put in there. I probably shouldn't put in the poo, but I never plan to use the compost in the yard, I just want the garbage to disappear, and it does. Plus, my compost never looks like the potting soil that they dump in them to take those catalog photos!

Unfortunately, in the tiny town where I live, curbside recycling is just a dream. We must take our things to the strangely named "convenience center", which is anything but! they will no longer take glass or food cans as they say that they cannot find a buyer in this economy. On trash days, when I walk my dogs in the early morning, it makes me so sad that more people don't recycle. It's such a small step that can make such a difference in extending the life of an expensive landfill. It seems that every week, they are loads of cardboard boxes and chunky plastic detergent bottles that are poking out of many bins. I know it's not easy to recycle, but it's a worthwhile, simple thing to do for our planet. I've been thinking of writing a flyer about recycling an putting in the mailboxes of all of our neighbors to encourage them to recycle. ;)

Jutta

[Lollies]

These are all interesting suggestions. Will have to try them out. I am fortunate to live in place the does recycle. We have three bins, one red, one green and one yellow. The green one is for garden scraps, branches etc. The yellow one is for recycling and the red one is for rubbish (garbage). The red one is actually the smallest of the three.
We also have a policy that each can, plastic bottle or glass bottle is worth 10c when you recycle it. You probably think that is not much (it used to be 5c) but it adds up especially when you drink a lot of soft drink Means more money for stamps. haha

Thanks
Lauren

[kphorse]

Re-Use - Re-duce - Re-cycle

My hubby runs the local sanitation company and I love to go to their office and check out the trash cans and white paper recycling bin...you can not believe the wonderful things I find that can be used in card making or scrap booking!

Just look around your own home...your garden area, garage or shop...It's there waiting for you to turn it into a *work of art*

[campstamper03]

We recycle glass, tin, paper, and plastic around the house, but I also recycle in my stamp room. I save, International coffee cans, the flip lid mayo plastic jars, crystal light containers and other plastic containers that look like something that I can use in the stamp room or to make things with. I have two boxes so far and I'm going to have fun this next winter putting them to use, that is when I have the most time to play with things like that.

[JBgreendawn]

one thing i do is sort my scraps of cardstock into 12x12 page protectors inside an tall basket, when these get full i take the tiny stuff, move it to an paper lunch sack sized bag ( rip it smaller ) fill an blender with it and four cups of tap water and you can make a pulp out of it and then dry it on an screen rack, and or add dried flowers from your yard and other botanicals and or iron it flat too... and wa-la hand made paper.. ;)

you can get an "kit" to make your own paper at M's if you don't have someone handy to make you an screen ( it needs a wood frame deep enough to hold your pulp on )

[RedInLove]

On a daily basis, we sort our paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, and cardboard. Our town does not have trash pick-up, we are responsible for bringing our waste to the town transfer station. Recycling is required when using the transfer station, which I think is a great idea. The town then recycles the different items for a profit, which allows the town residents to not have to pay a fee for our permit decals to use the station.

As far as craft items go, I'm actually saving some glass jars and bottles so I can make something with them. I also keep any leftover CS scrap or length of ribbon that's big enough to reuse.

[Seaside Rose]

I answered "yes" wholeheartedly. I repurpose all kinds of things to my scrap room and we recycle every possible thing. We are mandated in MA to recycle, and our town is very strict. We put fullly 75% of our trash in recycling, and toss out very little into the "regular" trash - about a 30 gallon bag each week or less for a family of four plus four dogs.

I reuse most non-recyclable plastic containers in my scrap room to hold this and that and to sort things for projects. Egg cartons are great for that too. They can eventually be recycled too! I throw out only the tiniest scraps... the rest goes into a large sorting bin and that is the first place I look for anything smaller than a full sheet.

I love all the ideas I've gotten here... great info everyone!

[MWDStamp]

We recycle a lot. I have 2 trash bins in my craft room, one for garbage and one for recycling. Any scraps of paper I don't save goes into the recycle trash bin, along with projects that did not quite work. We also have 2 garbage bins in our kitchen. We have to empty the recycling bin daily, the garbage bin we empty once a week. We are lucky to have curb side recycling that takes most plastics, glass, tin, paper, cardboard, cracker/cereal boxes. The city just gave us a recycling bin on wheels almost as big as the garbage bin. We fill it and an old recycling bin most weeks.
I shake my head when I see neighbor's garbage bins over flowing and their recycling bins almost empty. There is no excuse when you have curb side pick up of the stuff, we don't even have to sort it. The city could not make it any easier.

[binx]

We recycle everything that is recyclable, always have; it's just the way I was brought up. We were green far before anyone ever thought of the term, LOL!

I find lots of opportunities in my craft room. For instance, I take back bags to my LSS and let them reuse them. Clamshells from SU recycle nicely in weekly pick up. I keep a paper bag on my desk for scraps that are too small to use. The paper bag helps in that I can carry them to the recycling bin w/o dropping them all over the house and the recycling man can pick up the bag; the loose scraps were blowing all over the yard b/c he wouldn't bother with them. Hmmmm, what else? The wood blocks that come with unmounted sets I give to friends who find them handy for the SU sets that would otherwise require double-mounting.

I've even tried removing the sponge from dried-out ink pads, but it was messier more than beneficial. And I'm not sure that type of plastic was even eligible. I'm sure there are a couple other little things I do, but that's what comes to mind now.

[CreativeCritter]

We're big recyclers in our house. We also joined our city's Green Initiative earlier this year which keeps us on our toes looking for ways to reuse and conserve (light bulbs, efficient appliances, recycling, updated insulation, etc).

In addition to optional (paid service) curb-side recycling the city also has bins that don't require you to sort. They have a machine that does the sorting for you. It's their way to get more people to recycle ("Look! You don't even have to try!").

We only put out about one bag of trash every two weeks (there are only 3 adults in our house). I have a waste basket and a recycling basket in my craft room and I also am really careful to take my burlap shopping bag with me anytime I go craft (or really anything) shopping. They will give you a plastic bag for the silliest tiny things and I wish more baggers would learn to properly/efficiently pack a cloth bag.

I save all packing materials from the orders I receive to reuse when I send items to customers (I work and ship from home) and I keep just about any box or container that will help keep me organized.

I also keep a reusable water bottle in select rooms of my house to keep me from buying pre-bottled or canned beverages. If I already have a bottle at hand there is no reason for me to go out and buy cases of water (and subsequently waste a case of plastic bottles).

I've gotten some great ideas from you ladies that I hope to implement in the near future. Thanks for the great topic.

[nestof3]

I don't put tiny papers in the recycle bin because I figure they're hard for the people or whatever to sort.

I do shred a lot of my paper, though, and add to my compost pile.

I recycle all plastic, glass, metal, etc. that I can.

We read our news online instead of getting the paper. My mom gives me her coupons.

Paper towel rolls go to the hamsters and then to the recycle.

Plastic bags are used for cat litter.

Veggie/fruit/egg shells/coffee/tea go to the compost pile. Yard debris/clippings/grass and stuff I sweep up is also added to the pile.

Cereal crumbs (the stuff at the bottom of the bag) are saved in a container and added to muffins.

Leftover mashed potatoes are frozen and added as a thickener to soup.

I try to put leftover water on plants, especially from leftover water bottles.

Leftover veggies/meats/grains are made into leftover soup.

I also save all packaging materials including envelopes, boxes, peanuts and wrap. When I get too much to use, I take it to the local Mail Depot.

[nestof3]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Angelnorth

I try to look at anything I'm about to throw in the trash and decide if it might be useful for crafting in some way. It's not going to save the planet single handedly but it's fun to find things you can repurpose.


Like Sabrina, I save stuff like ribbon or twine from packaging of things like chocolates and flowers (there's a running joke in this house about the chocolates that DH often buys me at the airport when he's been on a business trip - he has to choose the box by how useful the ribbon will be!).

Hope some of those give you some useful ideas!

I do this too. I save all ribbons and buttons. We also reuse nice bows for wrapping and use more gift bags so we can reuse them.

I also shred all receipts and important papers which are then added to my compost.

We try to use something once more. For example, newspapers my mom sends over are used again for window cleaning or as paint drop cloths.

Cracker boxes and such are made into hamster houses by cutting holes in them.

I try to buy refills for things like baby wipes and cleaners instead of buying new containers each time.

[munzie]

Hi I am writing a book on recycling so i thought I'd share some things with everybody.
1. I reuse candy boxes, sweet treat & cookie boxes (the plastic kind); each holds colors, scraps, pictures plus idea notes of my newest project. I can just take one from the shelf (in my case the floor!) and look at ideas, think about it then begin working on it. In muine are several background color swatches, misc pics and cutouts, color scraps, ribbons, beads -all kinds of things. They work great for "artist block"
2. I reuse the small plastic cups from instant drinks that come in a plastic cylinder to mix paint or glaze etc. in. Plus the cylinders are perfect to store lots of unused cups in as they nest. When I've used the cups up I store pens, markers in the cylinders. They have good fitting tops so I can lay my markers on their sides or upside down as sharpies are supposed to be kept.
3. freebie magazines and big junk mail protect my craft table plus each page gives me a new stamping/gluing surface.
4. Grocery bags, make wonderful gingerbread men. use a cookie cutter as a shape template, cut around decorate with glitter glue paint or glued on eyes etc. poke holes in each hand and string them together hand to hand for very cute Christmas tree drape. Also try crumbling up a inked grocery bag & use another color to to ink the tops of the crumples then flatten it out (after it's dried) Use it for backgrounds. Try cleaning dirty ink pads on the bag then go over the tops of the crumples with metallic gold ink for a really cool effect. Dump a little embossing powder on it too.
Since we are awash with pretty papers & other cool stuff from ads, old magazines, coupon booklets and all that- use it up (or use it at least twice!

[pidgesmom]

Recycling is mandatory here. Cardboard needs to be cut up into 24" pieces and bound with twine. Newspapers and Magazines are bundled. Plastic bottles, glass bottles, and metal cans all go into the same container and are sorted at the recycling center. We can put used batteries in a plastic bag on top of the recycling. Once a month, the recycling center has a hazardous waste drop off which includes garden chemicals and even old electronics. They used to collect fabric but stopped doing that for some reason, but I usually call for a Lupus pickup when I have a few bags full of old clothing.

I try to use, or repurpose things in my crafting also. I've started doing a post every week on my blog called "Thursday's Throw Aways" where I'll take something that has lost it's original use and make it into, or use on something else. This week I used those little metal clips that you find holding socks together. You can see it here.

I've got lot's of "stuff" saved up to use and I keep adding more! Now if I could just figure a way to recycle some time!

[lynnewithane]

I haven't read all of the posts, but I think there are two types of recycling beding discussed here. One is re-using things that might otherwise leave your house, such as plastic containers and cardboard. The other is actually putting things in your recycling bin. I have been recycling for over 30 years. Even before it was popular, a college near where I grew up had recycling. (I'm talking about the 70's) I saved newspapers under my bed, which had to be tied with twine before we could turn it in. I made my Mom have a trash can for green glass, brown glass, and clear glass, and one for cans. They had to be separated, and we didn't have plastic containers back then. One Sunday a month, we packed everything into the station wagon and drove over to the college. It became a lifelong thing for me.

I was so thrilled when we got yellow bins and curbside recycling here! So, in my stamp room, I recycle everything I possibly can. When I open a monoadhesive package, the cardboard backing goes in my paper recycling, as well as any excess packaging. I put the plastic overlay of the package in the recycle bin. When the mono runs out, I put the plastic casing and wheels in the plastic recycling as well. We now have streamlined recycling, so the fact that the paper is still on the plastic wheel shouldn't be an issue, but I usually pull it apart.
Whenever I have something I'm done with, I ask myself "Is this paper, plastic, or metal?" If so, it goes in the recycling bin. Pretty much everything in the craft room falls in this category. The only exception would be something that is cloth, such as ribbon. I'm also unsure about embossing mistakes. I'm not sure what that is made of, and if it can be recycled, so I trash that.

We really have very little trash anymore. Just tissues and kitchen trash.

[lynnewithane]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pidgesmom

Recycling is mandatory here. Cardboard needs to be cut up into 24" pieces and bound with twine. Newspapers and Magazines are bundled. Plastic bottles, glass bottles, and metal cans all go into the same container and are sorted at the recycling center. We can put used batteries in a plastic bag on top of the recycling. Once a month, the recycling center has a hazardous waste drop off which includes garden chemicals and even old electronics. They used to collect fabric but stopped doing that for some reason, but I usually call for a Lupus pickup when I have a few bags full of old clothing.

I try to use, or repurpose things in my crafting also. I've started doing a post every week on my blog called "Thursday's Throw Aways" where I'll take something that has lost it's original use and make it into, or use on something else. This week I used those little metal clips that you find holding socks together. You can see it here.

I've got lot's of "stuff" saved up to use and I keep adding more! Now if I could just figure a way to recycle some time!

I tried to post a comment on your blog, but I was doing something wrong.
So, my comment was:

Cute, cute, cute!!! Another thing for me to save. Yikes. I just finished reading a clutter-busting article.

[Seaside Rose]

Love the ideas on your blog, Lynne (or is it Lorraine... not sure what you like to be called)! We recycle everything we possibly can, but our current system still can't handle the plastic package coverings or mono refill cartridges. I do call and check about anything I have a question about. Amazing what they CAN recycle that I never would have thought of. ;)

[lynnewithane]

We're two different people. Lorraine has the blog, I do not. I'll just go with you like both of our ideas!

Another new thing we have is that we can now recycle boxes from the freezer. They usually have a waxy coating which couldn't be recycled in the past. They now put out a bulletin letting us know that waxy boxes can go in the bin as well.
I bought a plastic container of cookies at Sam's that I'm thinking will be good for storing odds and ends in my classroom. Being from Sam's, it's a good size. Always thinking!