Fancy Up That Trash!

Posted by Flora Sawita

Soyou’ve probably heard about the 3 R’s of waste management, Reduce, Reuse, andRecycle, right? Most would agree that they’re good words to live by if you’re aconcerned citizen looking to do good things for the environment. Were youaware, however, that the 3 R’s are a sequential list where Reducing is betterthan Reusing and Reusing is better than Recycling? That’s right, you read itcorrectly. While Recycling is great, starting from the top of the list is waybetter. 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 toReuse.

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

Formore about Upcycling check out these links:

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

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

Tomake plastic bag fabric try this link:

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

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

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