Try these tips for turning your household garbage into toys, art, pet food, and more.
Trash: It’s under the sink, it’s in the bathroom, it’s stuffed in the cushions of the couch and lining the walls behind the washer and dryer. Where does it all go?
In 2008, the average amount of waste generated by each person in America per day was 4.5 pounds. In total, 24.3% of waste was recycled, 8.9% was composted, and 66.8% was sent to a landfill or incinerated, according to cleanair.org. Landfills are like sweeping the trash under the rug. Here are six easy and inexpensive ways to reduce household waste:
1. Turn toilet paper rolls into plant containers and more: The average person uses 57 sheets of toilet paper a day. An American family of four throws out around 240 cardboard toilet paper rolls each year. Reuse those cardboard cylinders. Stuff the rolls full of dryer lint to start a quick and easy fire in the winter months. Put plastic eyes and pouty mouths on the rolls to create puppets with the kids. Push the rolls into your garden or greenhouse soil to provide a structure in which to start seedlings in the garden.
2. Buy cloth towels instead of paper towels: Bring back the old-fashioned, absorbent, cotton flour sack dishtowels; you know the kind, perhaps your grandmother had one tucked lightly into her apron as she cooked. Then toss them into the laundry without buying another set. Use the towels for years rather than weeks. Save the paper towels for eating messy ribs or spaghetti, and use the dishtowels to clean the day-to-day messes.
3. Make use of old bottles: In 2007, Americans consumed over 50 billion single serve bottles of water; between 30 and 40 million single serve bottles went into landfills each year, according to banthebottle.net . While there are many reusable water bottles on the market, plastic bottles are the only feasible option in some situations. Instead of throwing your plastic bottles out, refill them when you want a drink on the go. Then turn them into boot trees to hold the shape of boots—just insert a clean, dry bottle into the center of the boot shaft for summer storage. Another use for plastic bottles is paint storage. Instead of housing leftover wall paint in old, rusty cans that you have to wrench open with a hammer, use a funnel to transfer paint into a clean, closed plastic bottle. Gomestic has more great ideas for reusing plastic bottles.
4. Reuse wine corks: Corks are biodegradable because they are made from the bark of oak trees. While they create less long-term waste than other products on our list, we must be able to do better than just throwing them out. If you lose the cap for a soda bottle, turn the cork into a soft-drink bottle cap; it will keep the soda from going flat. Get rid of the evidence of a girl’s night in by breaking the corks up into small round portions and using them as temporary earring stoppers. See what artists are doing with their corks, from armchairs to place settings.
5. Turn clothes hangers into old-school toys: Make moon-sized bubbles with a homemade bubble wand fashioned from a wire coat hanger. Shape the hanger into a hoop with a handle and dip it into a bucket filled with one part liquid dishwashing detergent and two parts water. Add a few drops of food coloring to make the bubbles more visible. Also, if you have hangers left over, you can wrap a straightened wire coat hanger around a 15-to 20-centimeter flowerpot, just below the lip; twist it back on itself to secure it, and then hang it on your porch to signify the coming of spring. Reader’s Digest has even more tips for re-using coat hangers.
6. Save the organs from dinner and turn them into protein-rich cat food: Cats have eaten raw food, from rodents to bugs, for thousands of years. Cats, unlike dogs, lack the ability to produce taurine, a necessary organic acid found in animal tissue, especially beef heart. Taurine is essential to cardiovascular function and other fundamental biological processes within the central nervous system and retina. Meat products are necessary for your cat’s health. Keep in mind that cats do not have the metabolic tools to get rid of toxic byproducts from spoiled food, so the raw food they eat must be fresh. Freezing the meat provides an easy way to keep the raw food fresh all year. Try mixing your meat blend in with commercial cat food. Your cat will flip.