Waste not, want not. That’s what my great grandmother preached as we washed off the plastic utensils from KFC’s lunch to reuse at a later date. Nothing was to be thrown away, not even the bag that frozen chicken came in. Everything had a second purpose, even if it seemed odd.
She grew up in a time, where everything needed to have a second purpose, but today that really isn’t the case. Plastic bottles, cardboard boxes and packaging for an endless number of products are items intended to be disposable. They have a purpose, to deliver the contents inside and then that’s it, they’re finished. Items like this can over run our recycle bins and garbage cans and eventually our land fills. What can be done?
I think my great grandmother had another reason behind saving strange items; save money. There are so many uses for everyday garbage; you just have to be creative. Since we garden a lot of our “trash” ends up there.
Our food scraps are compost, yogurt cups are great seed starters as well as paper egg cartons, and they can be planted with the seeds. Plastic bottles become tiny green houses over individual plants and scrap wood makes for a great raised bed.
Many of these items, if purchased for their specific purpose, such as seed starting planters cost money. That money adds up fast especially when already paid for an item that does the same thing.
But you don’t need a garden to reuse would be trash. Here are some ideas:
And our spring project: A greenhouse made out of old windows! It's going to awesome.
Sources unknown- e-mail me if you know it.
Happy Thursday!
