Milk Carton Reuse

Milk carton food container

Sorry I've been missing for so long! I do have some more ideas to share though!

I found another way to reuse a milk carton - as a leftover/food container. I have been slowly getting rid of all my plastic containers and using glass. Recently I committed to taking one home cooked meal a week to a sick friend, and have found myself wanting to buy disposable foil pans (which I did once) as well as plastic food containers so she wouldn't have to worry about returning anything to me. This is so much better because it's reusing something that I only have so many creative uses for. My only caveats are:

• wash empty container out immediately with warm soapy water to get all the dairy out
• let food completely cool before putting it into the container - it has a waxy coating that makes it wonderfully waterproof but is not made for hot things
• clip, tape or staple the top to close it, but be careful not to jostle too much because it's not sealed like a plastic container would be

I'm pleased with this reuse!

Plarn Basket

basic instructions here

I would have totally taken basket weaving in college it they offered it! When I saw this basket making pin on Pinterest I decided to try it out. I had already cut out some 1" strips of bread bags for plarn that hadn't worked out for crochet plarn. So, I put them to use to make this kooky little hinged basket. At some point I'd like to make a bigger piece such as a tray, laundry basket or small trash bin. I really like how it turned out and it was a lot of fun to make and a great way to upcycle plastic bags into a functional little container.  

Glass Bottles

Glass bottles being washed for reuse

Much as I try to NOT to purchase single use bottles, they creep in. They come with guests. They come holding delicious sauces and liquids that I don't know how to make. Some I send off to recycle. The ones that have good tops that can be washed (most of them) I clean and reuse. Because of the small opening, cleaning can be a bit of a challenge. Typically they go through the dishwasher but don't come out fully clean. Enter the bobble wand - find it where the bobble water bottles and filters are sold. It's silicone and small and works great for larger mouthed bottles. The secret weapon for harder to clean or small mouthed bottles is activated charcoal. I keep a few tablespoons in a tin by my sink. These little black "rocks", along with hot water and soap, and a vigorous shake, gets bottles clean clean clean! So, after all that, what do I use these bottles for? 

• home made salad dressing
• lunch box drinks such as tea, kefir, soda
• home made syrups for my soda machine
• concentrated coffee for iced and hot coffee
• iced tea
• instead of water bottles

Refuse - the fourth R

cards ordered from moo.com

The Plastic Pollution Coalition has introduced me to a fourth R - Refuse. So it's Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Refusing brings a bit of advocacy into the Reduce strategy. And that's perfect for what I'm trying to accomplish this year. It will however be a challenge for me to go this Refuse route. By nature I'm a conflict-avoider and recoil at the thought of embarrassing someone for essentially doing their job (giving me a straw, paper napkin, disposable cup, etc.). I'm going to turn that awkward moment into an opportunity to share the message with others. When I ask the waitress if I could use my own cup for a cold drink...I'm going to share the reason why with her, ack! I'm enlisting a prop to help me out. I've purchased 100 of these little cards to help me broach the subject and leave people with something to think about. On the front is a brief statistic and the link to this blog, and on the back is an image related to upcycling/reusing. I hope that the act of handing this over and gently explaining what I'm trying to accomplish this year will endear me slightly and make this refuse thing easier to deal with. 

(I did a bad and ordered some mini-cards that are not printed on recycled paper, they do claim to be sustainably sourced though...I'll Do Better next time...and now I REALLY feel pressure to use them up so that won't have been an even greater waste of resources).  

Bread Tags

bread tags generally come in these two designs

Those well engineered little bread tags have a multitude of uses once you've finished the loaf. Here are some ways I've been using them:

• keeping appliance cords wrapped - standing blender, hair dryer, etc.
• labeling electrical cords - that mess of cords behind my TV for example
• quick label for keys - just clip it on like a key ring
• keeping track of the end of a roll of tape (no more scraping around the edge to find it!)
• labeling jars, as in the example above

Turns out there are many many other applications and here's a list of 33 uses for bread tags!

DIY Foaming Soap

foaming soap

My quest to reduce single use items has led me deeeep down a DIY path that has nicely overlapped with my desire to know what exactly I'm using to clean my house and body. One of the first things I figured out how to make on my own was foaming soap - those of you on Pinterest have probably already seen this, but here goes. Lest you think, like I did, that the soap itself is special, the magic turns out to be in the container...yeah, the one usually thrown away or recyled when the foaming soap ran out. Or, you could refill with a tell tale liquidy soap that can be purchased in yet another single use container. Totally seems like cheating when you learn that they are selling you watered down soap in a second container - especially when you read "instructions" that say "refill only with our product..." 

So, here's the deal. Once you use up the original container, you open it, pour in maybe a 1/2 inch of liquid soap (buy the biggest container you can of that so you are buying the least number of consumable plastic bottles) and then fill the rest with tap water. There you have it, handy and identically foaming soap. I use Dawn blue soap for dishes and Dr. Bronner's castile (almond and peppermint are my two favorites) for hand soap in the bathroom. 

Living Plastic Free?

Glass Jars - I like to spray paint the tops to give them a unified look.

In my interwebs perusals I came across this TEDx talk by Beth Terry who has committed to living plastic free. That seems like a worthy but insurmountable task - plastics free. I am committed to greatly reducing my single use plastics consumption. In her talk she gives 8 reasons why personal change (to live plastics free) matters. She inspired me to reflect on the most significant and relatively easy changes I have already made towards eliminating my consumption of single use plastic:

1. Carry my own cloth to use as a drying cloth and napkin
2. Save glass jars and use them to store food, leftovers and lunchbox food
3. Keep several travel mugs and reusable cold drink cups in my car so I can easily use them and have enough for a travel companion 
4. Have more grocery totes than I really need in my car so that if I always have some there if I (inevitably) forget to return them immediately to the trunk. 

Please take a look at Beth's short and entertaining talk - linked above - she makes some really great points.