by Marcelle Mccallum

Created on: March 13, 2009   Last Updated: March 15, 2009

There is so much that you can recycle if you put your mind to it a little. We all know about putting glass, cans and plastics in the recycling bin. But is there a way of re-using these products before they are finally recycled? There sure is. Quite a lot of household waste can be used.

Kitchen Discards:

More and more food comes in decent air tight containers once again. Jars of all sorts, lidded tins, such as the ones they use for formula, even some anything which can be washed can be used again. Cardboard containers of all sorts can also be re-used. The ones which are of sturdier construction can be used for containers, draw dividers, baskets, even gift boxes. The others, such as milk cartons make great seed raising pots, as do egg cartons.

Any food scraps which contain no animal product can be safely composted in any old compost bin or heap. Fats can be poured, strained and kept for re-use. Paper products can be out in the compost or fed to worms. Many cleaning cloths can be washed and re-used for less sanitary cleaning. Once your good sponge is too yucky to use in the washing up anymore, it can be a floor spot cleaning sponge.

There are a few things that can't really be re-used sch as plastic food bags, foil and cling wrap. But by looking with a keen eye at all of your other kitchen discards, you should be able to find a way to re-use them. Broken crockery can be turned into mosaic, even old and bent cutlery can be used in the garden or given to a local metal working artist.

Bathroom Discards:

With the exception of toothpaste tubes, just about every bathroom container can be re-used. Once they have been well cleaned they make excellent bath toys. They can be squirty bottles, boats, submarines, whales, anything you put your imagination to. Washed bathroom containers often make excellent containers for keeping cleaners you make to your own preparation, be they commercial or home made. All those annoying hairs can be composted too, if you can think of an ingenious place to put them outside you will find birds coming to take them back to line their nests with. Soap slivers can be mushed and re-used until the last tiny bit, and any boxes can be re-used once again as drawer inserts, or anything you can think of that requires a box. Once again, all those irritating little platic packages have to be discarded, but a lot can be re-used.

General Discards:

Paper of just about any sort can be composted, except glossy magazines. These can be kept for collaging and art supplies,

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