Welcome to day 2 of Zero Waste Week 2015!
Today we’re looking at how we can reuse tins and glass.
Each family uses an average of 500 glass bottles and jars annually, yet 5 out of 6 glass bottles are thrown away.
And it’s a sad picture with tins too – £36,000,000 worth of aluminium is thrown away to landfill each year.
So let’s turn frowns into smiles with some creative reuse:
Sort your junk drawer
Do you have string that escapes untamed around your junk drawer, causing everything to get tangled?
Why not reuse an old coffee pot to sort those tangles once and for all?
Decant bulk buys
If you have a big family or are trying to stretch the family budget, buying food in bulk is a good way to stop wasting money.
But it’s not easy to handle a 25 kg bag of rice or lentils.
Repurpose old jars for storage to keep your cupboards clear.
Dry your herbs
Do you have a garden full of mint or some shop bought herbs growing on your windowsill?
Dry your herbs throughout the summer, then store in small glass jars for use throughout the winter.
You can add to meals or use as herbal tea.
An eggcellent idea
Instead of buying eggcups why not reuse an old herbs and spice jar?
Like this!
It looks a bit precarious, but I promise it works!
Desk organiser
Pens rolling onto the floor? Nowhere to put your scissors?
This desk organiser made from tin cans will get you organised in no time. Click here for the tutorial.
Organise your bathroom
With a teenage girl in the house, our bathroom often resembles a bomb site.
There are hair bands and clips, cotton buds and all sorts of paraphernalia scattered around the place.
I might have a go at this – a bathroom organiser made from old cans. Will they go rusty? I’m yet to find out.
Organise your arts and crafts
Do you make things, paint things or generally play around with glitter and glue?
Screw some old jars to the underside of a shelf and keep those supplies organised:
Jewellery
Fancy a unique piece of jewellery?
Wouldn’t we all, but we probably can’t afford it.
Or can you?
Check out this tutorial for making jewellery from can ring pulls!
Storage containers
If you have too much stuff and not enough space, how about reusing coffee canisters for storing yarn?
Of course, you could use them for anything you want – paintbrushes, pencils, tent pegs – the choice is yours.
What about you; how do you reuse tins and glass?
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I tried leaving a comment yesterday re the article about using a plastic bottle to protect plants from slugs, but it didn’t post.
My point was that I hoped the water contained tap water not expensive bought water.
Thanks for adding to the conversation, Alan. I didn’t see your comment yesterday, so I’m not sure what happened there. Well, the point of the post was that the bottle was empty – we always reuse bottles for tap water at zero waste towers and have a couple of bottle of bought water for emergencies (we live in a rural area where it’s not uncommon to find the water off intermittently )