Recycling tips: Why not?

[Peter7307]

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

Another reuse project I did was a thermos cover. It is a two layer sleeve with a hood, the inner layer is out of fleece scraps to keep in heat, the outer layer is from a rainproof coat. It cost about $10 for a tailor to do it, now the thermos is warm even when we hike in the winter In fact, it's so good that we had a second one made, and a third and fourth for our friends. Now we need more scraps.

Sounds like the beginnings of a business venture there.

Pete.

[toyobug]

well I haven't been on here in a couple months...(hazard of work)
So herre I am reading along then all of a sudden no more posts....where'd everyone go?
Great ideas from everyone so far, thanks for the thread Christ.
I don't have a contribution at this time, but will re-post if I come up with something.

[Christ]

I'm sick. I feel like crap. And, I'm currently parting out all my cars except one. I haven't had a lot of time to do much else besides work on the van I'm keeping (2000 Dodge Caravan - water pump replacement and basic maintenance/cleaning)

As soon as I have more time, I will try to post up some more recycling tips.

Meanwhile, try to think of some things that you have re-used in the past that haven't been listed already, and feel free to post them here! Or even if you have something that has been listed, but you have a slightly different way of using it, that will work too.

[Frank Lee]

I cut out a cup from an old tin muffin pan to make a spark arrestor for my lawn mower. Not ghetto at all! Looks factory!

[Christ]

That's awesome... I used to help build HP engines for lawnmower/gokart racing (5-15HP, high revvers) and the mufflers were usually made of tin cans, one inside another, and the inside one was punched (not louvered... we weren't that high tech) and then packed old dish scrubbers in them (steel wool) and bolted a pipe adapter to them.

This allowed us to reuse a pair of steel cans, about 7-10 steel wool scrubbers, and old hardware that we got from updating piping in buildings and houses.

[CobraBall]

GARBAGE DISPOSAL
We NEVER put anything into the garage disposal, with the exception of meat/fish scraps. After each meal we put food scraps into a cover plastic bowl. Coffee grounds are first air dried as are high moisture fruit peelings. The large items are cut into approx. 1 inch squares. Then the Boss, once or twice a week, will bury the organic food scraps in the back yard flower beds. IMHO our earth worms are the biggest and healthiest in the neighborhood.

If you try this, be sure to keep the scraps covered. Fruit flies can become a problem very quickly. If you get fruit flies, a drop of two of bleach on the inside of the lid or cover should eliminate this problem.

[Christ]

Good one!

All of our food scraps here, end up in a bucket. It's a muck bucket, basically. It's outside. At the end of the week, the owner of this house takes them to a farm that his family runs, and they use them up there for whatever they use them for. Usually, they get mixed in with pig feed, but sometimes, they just get tossed into a "fert bin". It should be quite obvious how THAT smells.

That includes tea bags, coffee grounds, actual food, etc.

[Ryland]

it's been a number of weeks and I'm still waiting to see what we get for trash and recycling, the biggest collection is of plastic bags for the home improvement store, although I've been getting better at bringing my cloth bag in there, they also hold up better then plastic when loaded with heavy goods.
the plastic bags that some of the bulk foods at the co-op are bagged in are also a question, as they like to bag the harder to handle foods like dried fruits and often snacked on things like nuts, so even if you bring a jar for them it does you no good.

[Peter7307]

Ryland,
Recycling food containers at bulk supply places doesn't work here either.

They always use their own containers for whatever you buy (even if you bring it with you they still won't use it) and will not accept any (including their own) for reuse.

The claim being it is too easy for a contaminated container to give some one health problems and they cop the blame for it.

In that instance it is either a new bag or no food.

At least the bag gets recycled and reused.

Cheers , Pete.

[Christ]

We have an open air market here during the summer/spring/fall times, and I don't know if any of those merchants would consider allowing their bulk food products to be sold into containers that were just brought with us or not. I will look into it though.

Many of those merchants are Amish, and grow things specifically for the market. Several of them have found out about retailing as well, and now buy bulk candies and such to sell back to patrons.

One thing about Amish families that has always stuck in my mind... I sold an Amish man a truck once, for $3000 (he tried for 3 days to get me lower than that price.) When he finally broke down and paid me for the damn thing, he paid me IN CASH. It was like "let me run to the bank and get your money" NO, he went inside, grabbed the cash, and brought it to me. He then wouldn't let me leave until I counted it in front of him.

Similarly, I used to sell water purification systems for homes and businesses, and several Amish families bought them (the ones we sold to Amish families, due to the lack of electricity, came equipped with solar panels that would run them free of charge.) Every one I sold to them, was paid for in cash.

In fact, the first demonstration that I did for an Amish family, was to 5 families. In their barn. With their pump water. I still can't believe they were drinking that crap.