Waste Not, Want Not

I’m not sure when our society became so disposable. We dispose of anything from razors to entire buildings and it just doesn’t seem right to me. I make an effort not to waste but I wish I could do even better. Here are some ways I like to use things in order to reduce, reuse and recycle. If you have some tips of your own I would love to hear them. Please post them in the comment section.

Food is rarely ever wasted in my home anymore.  If my dogs can eat it I will give it to them.  If not it can go the compost pile. Leftover meat grease from my husband’s cooking is made into gravy for dogs or humans. When I am at the end of the mayonnaise, mustard or ketchup bottle and it’s too hard too scrape I like to take that container and mix my own homemade salad dressing right  in the bottle. I shake it all up and the  leftover condiment becomes part of the dressing. It may seem like that small amount of mayo in the jar is nothing but I feel better about using it. I am sure if we were starving as some people are that we would get every drop out of it.  Sometimes I use the leftover vinegar from pickles, olives or hot peppers as a salad dressing base. Seeds rarely get “wasted” at my house. I often dry them out so I can try to grow some of them. Now since I recently learned that all squash seeds are edible I am saving all of those for eating. Right now I am drying spaghetti squash and pumpkin seeds for toasting.

All containers that I can recycle are sorted. Tin and aluminum I can save up and sell for scrap metal.  Plastic one and two I can recycle in my area. I have recently heard of a place in Tallahassee that can recycle all types of plastics and lids. I am going to look into to see if I can bring mine there along with the glass I am saving for them. For now I like to recycle all of the containers in my area and the rest I keep to reuse as storage containers for various things like leftovers, pushpins, craft supplies and you name it. Paper, brown cardboard and magazines I recycle. Newspaper I save for emergency cat litter and art projects. Old envelopes become seed storers. Pretty colored paper I  save for homemade paper projects. I save many long-necked glass bottles because they are great for homemade wines and vinegars.

Empty milk jugs and large juice bottles I wash and save for many uses. Some I have saved  for adding to our emergency water supply storage. Each one gets a drop of bleach added to the bottle along with the water and then it goes into  the storage room. Other jugs I use for watering plants and mixing liquid fertilizer. Still others are used as temporary containers in our new homemade wine-making adventures. I have been known to mix up my own homemade cleaners and store them in these containers too. Make sure you carefully label all of your containers. You don’t want to end up with a terrible thing called container confusion. Years ago I accidentally took a swig of oxy-clean solution  that was in a water jug. I had to call poison control to make sure I would be ok. They said I might vomit but otherwise I would be fine. I never did vomit or feel sick but I did get an embarrassing story to tell out of it.

Empty bread bags, tortilla wrap bags and the like I save  for putting our lunch sandwiches into. I just shake out the crumbs and save it for brown bagging it which is what we normally do if we are working. That way at least I get an extra use out of the bag and I don’t waste a Ziploc or have a dish to wash which saves water. My father has used bread bags to wrap up open cheese for years. I wash and freeze plastic soda and juice bottles. These are the ice packs for the lunch. I make Kool-Aid or iced coffee for drinks which go into the recycled bottles as well. The homemade ice packs, drinks and lunch all go into a plastic Wal-Mart  bag. It works great.!

Plastic pet food bags are great for placing around plants in the garden to keep weeds from springing up. They can also be used underneath for raised beds with the same effect.  Old clothes that aren’t good enough to donate I will tear up into cleaning rags which I like to use instead of paper towels. Old t-shirts are a nice bedding for a homemade cat bed made from a cardboard box.

Finally, one of the most fun projects I recently did was reuse parts of an old dishwasher. We recycled much of it for scrap metal. The compartment that held silverware I am reusing as an extra drainer for washing dishes. The large bottom drainer is now a jewelry rack. I purchased some spray paint that can be used on plastics and vinyl in the color burnished silver. First I wiped it down with ammonia to help the paint adhere better. Once it dried I had to spray several light coats of the paint over a period of two days and then  let it dry for a week. Now it hangs up on the wall as a perfect place for French hook earrings, bracelets, rings and necklaces.

I am always trying to think about how I can reuse it or recycle it before putting it into the trash. I am pretty good at reusing and recycling but I need to get better at reducing the amount of waste I create in the first place. Here is a link to a videos about the Johnsons, an awesome “zero waste” family that I aspire to be more like: http://vitality.yahoo.com/video-second-act-the-johnson-family-24454760 . Mrs. Johnson has a blog called the Zero Waste Home that is very interesting: http://zerowastehome.blogspot.com/2011/