The art of recycling for a greener environment starts with seeing trash as "abandoned material" so that we can create "Abundance from the Abandoned" in "Amazing Ways".
Do you know that you can get paid to recycle your old paper?
If you do a search for “recycle paper near me”, you should be able to find a company that will collect your paper.
At my bike shop, I recycle:
-cardboard boxes and paper. -metal parts from bicycles.
On my request, the guy who collects my recyclables will give my staff some pocket money.
I also send packaging material taken off bicycles delivered, like bubble wraps and plastic sheets that are clean and still in good condition, to a courier service company, right next door.
However, there many ways you can make use of them, if you do not want to recycle them or have to pay a fee for collection. If they are blank paper, you can make notebooks out of them. I shared how it can be done in a question I answered on Quora earlier at the following link. From there you can learn to bind the papers together into a notebook:
You can use the notebooks you make to start a journal because journaling is good for your emotional wellbeing. If you are feeling down and do not know how to start journaling, read this book by Lee Crutchley, "How to Be Happy (Or at Least Less Sad): A Creative Workbook". I found a review about it shared on VaneesBabySteps YouTube channel. At the end of the video, she flipped through the book which will give you an idea how you can go about journaling your thoughts so that you can be less sad.
If you are not someone who likes to write, you can also journal in bullet points. I saved some ideas on how you can do it on my Pinterest board, “Bujo (bullet point journal)”.
Following are other ways you can make use of your notebook. You can use it:
-to record recipes
-to draw or doodle in it.
-as a travel/souvenir collection book.
-as an accounting book.
-as a scrapbook to stick your photos or cut out of images that inspire you.
-to jot down ideas and develop your writing skill as an author.
Are you good at crafting? If there are prints on them, you can use them for paper-mâché projects to make practical items like bowls and planters to decorative objects, such as, sculptures, masks, and ornaments.. You can learn the process from the following question I answered earlier.
You can find free products or materials for making crafts everywhere. If you look out for them, you can find them:
-in your home.
-at work. -from your friends and neighbours. -at restaurants, stalls or shops you often patronise. -in public areas.
You just have to try to get your hands on them before they are discarded. I see many material you can work with in this bin. Can you spot them too?
If you are good at painting, instead of buying drawing pads, you can consider painting on empty glass bottles. This is a gift I received from a friend in Beijing. It is a painting of my husband and son on a snuff bottle. The artist who created it managed to copy the likeness from a photo I gave my friend.
I think that is a neat idea. So, if you have recently celebrated with a bottle of champagne, instead of throwing the empty bottle away, you can either do it yourself or find an artist to have your photo painted on it to commemorate the event you opened it in celebration.
What are you good at making? You can list out the tools and material you need to complete your work on a piece of paper and note beside it what other material you can consider using as substitutes. Some crafting tools can be expensive. So, use your creativity to improvise with the available tools or material that you have on hand to complete your craft.
For example, when I was learning to make wirework jewellery, I discovered that I could use as working material:
-the copper wires removed from leftover electrical cables.
I managed to use them to learn to make Roman bracelets from a book I borrowed from the library.
-the trolling stainless steel wires that my husband no longer use.
These are the tools I made use of to create jump rings…
…to create this beaded necklace.
I love using material that would otherwise be discarded in my craftwork. I call my efforts, creating abundance from the abandoned. Since I enjoy handcrafting, I am always on a look out for free crafting tutorials online. But instead of buying new material to create, I tend to use discarded material. For example, at my bike shop I have lots of punctured tubes to work with. Instead of using ribbons, here are some of the things I can create with punctured tubes.
Punctured tubes can be used to cover a hole in a chair.
Instead of buying leather, I experimented with tubes to learn leather craft.
I have also experimented with used tyres from my bike shop. My customers used to enjoy sitting on this chair I created with them while they were waiting for their bicycles to be fixed. However, the raffia strings I used to tie them together disintegrated over time. So, if you are inspired to create the same, you have to use stronger material as fastenings.
Do you like crafting with fabric? My uncle used to work for a textile wholesaler. He gave my mom lots of fabric samplers and unsold leftover fabric at the end of each roll. My mom was able to sew quilted blankets, cushion covers and floor mats with the scraps of fabric received. If you require fabric in your craftwork, see if you have friends who enjoy sewing or who are in the tailoring business. They should be willing to give you their scraps. I used to receive used zips and scraps of fabric from a friend who is a tailor. That was because I told her once that jewellery can be created even with damaged zippers.
You can also upcycle clothes you or your family members have outgrown. To upcycle means, to reuse discarded material in such a way that it creates a product of higher quality or value than the original. What you are able to create yourself will be valued. With some creativity, anything can be upcycled. If you do not want to upcycle your clothes but you are not comfortable about wearing them again because you have worn them one time too often or they have gone out of fashion, you can learn to embellish them by adding decorative details so that they look different. That will require you to take up some basic sewing skills though.
Currently, I save all crafting tutorials with potential to create with free material on my Pinterest board, “Abundance from Abandoned”. From there you can explore the free material you can use in your craft.
This video gives you an idea what you can craft with fruit foam wraps.
Once you have discovered the kind of free material you would like to work with, tell everyone you know to keep them for you. And be friendly with storekeepers of shops you often buy your stuff from as they may have lots of packaging material which you can make use of in your craft.
These are the other practical stuff that I have made over the years with free material:
I managed to create this weaving tool with my empty herb supplement bottle. Instead of yarn, I cut strips out of plastic bags to weave.
These watering pals for watering plants are made of PVC bottles and dressed up with plastic bags.
For my former kitchen.
This is how I decorate empty containers for storing my stuff.
Costumes and hair pieces I made for school concerts to reduce the cost of paying for clothes that my children may only wear once during their performance.
Bouquet cum duster that I designed and made with plastic bags which can be given out as gift.
With these creations, I was able to conduct a workshop on recycling and upcycling for some university students in UTAR during one of their extramural activities.
Musical instrument I created for my children to play with.
I designed and created this dog poo scoop with a PVC bottle and some plastic bags. I hope owners taking their dogs out for walks at the public park in the neighbourhood will learn to make them so that it will be easier for them to clean up after their pets.
This new year greeting in Malay for display at my bike shop is made of cardboard and strips of plastic bags.
Placard I made for my bike shop to inform my customers when it will closed for the festive holidays.
Before I started my bike shop, I often collect my free cardboard boxes from my regular fruit stall. These are some of the stuff I am able to create with my collection:
Mini cupboard
It was made wide enough for me to use empty tissue boxes as drawers.
I have been collecting empty sachets for coffee because there is a thin film of aluminium foil inside. I discovered that they can be cut and folded to create a bag like this.
You do not have use the sachets inside out if they have lovely designs on it.
I prefer to crochet over making bags out of this material and will gladly give them away to anyone interested to collect. When I crochet I also consider using cut strips from plastic bags or raffia strings as yarn in my work.
Items that would otherwise be discarded can become valuable to others if it has sentimental value. That said, have you ever thought of using fallen hair to create craft? You can learn the process of creating hairwork by watching this video.
Do you keep the packaging containers from product you purchased?
I do keep some of them if they are suitable for storing my stuff. I like the clear containers from Ferrero Rocher. I usually use them to store my beads and finishings for making handmade jewellery. I recently discovered a way to make use of their 24 piece container which is rather shallow.
It is perfect as a base for my crochet granny square bag which I can use without its cover. I like it that it is the perfect size for carrying a box of cake.
If I leave it as is, this crochet piece and the container will work well as a decorative receptacle for serving food during a festive event, like the forthcoming Raya celebration.
This is the video instruction for the bag.
You will have to modify the base if the yarn you use is different in thickness. I enlarged my base with another granny square design so that it fits the size of the Ferrero Rocher container I used. I also used leftover wool from another project to make part of the base.
Are you wondering if you should buy drinks that are packed in aluminum cans or in PET bottles?
It depends on which country you are from and how the recycling rate is like for the packaging involved. Recycling agents in Malaysia would rather take aluminium cans over plastic as one lorry load of aluminium cans earns more than one lorry load of PET bottles.
I read this article posted on July 20, 2019 by TAPP Water:
% recovered for recycling in USA
Glass 80%
ALUMINIUM 45%
PLASTIC (PET) 9.5%
Though the recycling rate in reported is 80% for glass bottle, in Malaysia I am not able to find recycling agents for them.
If you read the report, "Disposable Drinking Bottles- Plastic vs. Glass vs. Aluminum" from Macquarie University in Australia website, the recycling rate is different:
Average Amount Currently Recycled reported in Australia
GLASS 50%
ALUMINIUM 50%
PLASTIC (PET) 60%
Maybe it is easier to make a decision based on your views from this report extracted from the report posted at TAPP Water:
Time to decompose
Glass bottle 1 million years*
Single use plastic 400 years
Carton Never**
Aluminium can 100-400 years
Decomposition residue
Glass bottle - Glass
Single use plastic - Microplastics
Carton - Some microplastics
Aluminium can - Metal scrap
How do you stop microplastics from polluting the environment? Based on this, I would rather choose aluminium over PET bottles.
If you still cannot make up your own mind on it, read what "The Aluminum Association" has to say about it.
Extracted:
"Nearly 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today.
Infinitely recyclable and highly durable, nearly 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today. Aluminum is 100 percent recyclable and retains its properties indefinitely. Aluminum is one of the only materials in the consumer disposal stream that more than pays for the cost of its own collection."
See how Tetrapak is recycled in India to benefit the public.
Tetrapak is working on raising awareness that their cartons can be recycled. I think that children in school should be taught during their art and craft class lessons on how they can extract paper out of cartons as shown in this video.
However, there is hope for change through a trash management programme developed by nonprofit, Mother Earth Foundation. The city council of San Fernando allows the poor to make a living by picking through trash from every house daily and bring it all to sell at one of its 35 waste warehouses throughout the city.
Through this new system, more than 75 percent of waste gets composted or recycled and it costs the city council about 80 percent less to manage waste, as trash trucks are no longer required to collect waste from every house.
To boost plastic recycling, Dutch designer, Dave Hakkens, provides free tutorial at Precious Plastic so that one can learn t build a machine that can shred up plastic waste so that the material can be used to make useful artifacts.
More money can be made from a finished product than from recycling, if the poor adopt this idea.
If old clothing can have a say in how they should be used, this will be its autobiography.
Other than donating your old clothing, what else can you do on a personal level with clothes that you or your family members no longer wear? Maybe reading this book, "The Upcycled T-Shirt: 28 Easy-to-Make Projects That Save the Planet Clothing, Accessories, Home Decor & Gifts" will give you some ideas.
What can you do to reduce the cost of managing a house when you retire?
Steve Rees could still remember how cool it was inside the caves he played in as a kid and decided that he will live off-grid in his make do cave by burying two shipping containers.
His retirement "cave" home attracted so much interest that he decided to write a book about how it was build and you can find it selling at
It is great to know that being kind to the environment by conserving energy and by re-using what could have been abandoned material can also be kind to the pocket.
Take a breather from complaining about plastic bottles littering the environment and take a look at this video.
Don't you like it that you can now process plastic discards into something useful again?
And, don't worry about the cost of getting the machines you need to start because, you are going to learn to make your own with affordable basic materials at Precious Plastic.
When the party is over, start picking up those drink bottles to keep before they get discarded in the bin. Find time to watch this video and decide what you want to do with your own collection of bottles.
There are definitely lots of stuff that you and your children can create so that they can have lots of fun during the weekends, even when they are spending them at home.
You can find the full "how to" instruction posted on Instructables at the following link:
Do you need to buy more bags to match what you wear?
How about getting yourself a multicolored one that would match most of what you have? You think that is too gaudy? Watch this and you may decide to make your own.
Now you know what to do with scarves and stuff made out of fabric in your home that you have intended to scrap.
Plastic bottles can be an issue if left to litter the environment. Coca-Cola in doing their part gives you a reason to take their bottles out of the bins to re-use them.
If your children are sociable, they are bound to be invited to lots of parties. If they are still schooling, think of the number of students each one of them have as classmates. Add them up and you know that you will have to spend quite a bit on gifts for them to bring to parties they are invited to.
Other than storing up on gifts when sales are on, here is another way to save cost. Make your own gift boxes. You can start by keeping the empty plastic bottles.
The small gift boxes mean smaller and less costly gifts to look out for, right?
If you are thinking of buying a broom, maybe you would like to check this video out to see if you could make yourself one. After all you should not have any problems getting the material you need to start making it.
What would you expect to see displayed at international airports? At the San Francisco International Airport Terminal 3 they are showcasing trash. Before you huff and puff off the notion of visiting such an exhibition, look at what Recology Artist in residence have done with them.
