What have you recycled today?

[Amorphous02]

I have in my cabinets : protein shake mix, oat meal, cereal, raisins.. all screaming to free up the space and use Flash's trend setting idea of making giant batches of muffins.
1)So, I will be MUFFING soon. Aside from that today i cleaned out some freezer dinner containers and used them to make ice. I use this ice on trips that my Dh is addicted to.

2)Also collected cans for recycling: Wish me luck, all!

3) Reused grocery bags to collect and throw away trash.

These small things have helped me so much ...

Besides,recycling is good Karma.

So, what have you recycled today?

[CheaplyClever]

I recycled weeds from the flower garden. I pulled them up and threw them in the yard where they can flourish and grow until I can get after them with the lawn mower!

I have a compost bin and recycle newspaper, cardboard and aluminum cans. I recently took three bags of crushed cans to the aluminum guy. I had 40 pounds and got $21.60. Not bad.

[PrincessPerky]

umm..just paper today....but yesterday we went to the store, the bag from harris was folded for use in painting later. Oh and today I got a package, the box will be used to mail ebayd stuff...I hope.

[Bookie]

Shipping boxes (which I use for storage) and plastic grocery bags (for trash). Oh, and the newspaper, of course.

[Amorphous02]

I dont come close to "CleverbutCheap"...but now i have found something fabulous. Your nearest bakery! I had to make brunch for some very picky eaters and my budget was small. there were last minute RSVPs. This is what i did: talked to all the local bakeries and made appointments with the manager of the largest bakery. I asked her what happened to all the bread that goes stale. It was being donated to the local churches and soup kitchens . I requested that if the church did not prefer a certain kind, i will take it off of their hands for a lesser price.
Results: 20 lbs of bread for $7.00!!!
Of course i made a ton of french toast , bread pudding and croutons . Got a migrane, but better me than my wallet. I was $14 dollars below the budget. thanks to nutmeg, nothing left over.
Might not work all the time, but you are the savvy savers, you work it out with the locals!

[sakigt]

Plastic Bags for my lunch bag

[Pollyanna]

Today? Well, while cleaning the cabinet under the utility room sink, I found 4 "empty" liquid laundry detergent jugs, so I rinsed them out well and used the resulting soapy water to do 2 loads of laundry. The jugs are now in the trunk of my car for drop off at the recycling bins tomorrow when I go to work (drive right by them.) I also went through my closet and pulled out a couple of items that I've not worn yet this summer and have them folded into a bag to take to work for our clothing closet.

In the past couple of days, I've recycled 3 weeks worth of newspapers by folding them together into stacks 20+ pages thick, then putting them over the weedy spots in my raised garden beds and covering them with shredded leaves saved from last fall. I recycled my dishwater and some of my bathwater by tossing it on the newspapers before I put the leaves on top. The beds should be weed free by time to plant the fall veggies.

I've also used some large shipping boxes that Hubs brought me home from his workplace to put down over the weeds in the pathways of the garden; then covered them with mulch. I tucked flattened boxes from grocery products under the larger cardboard before I put the mulch down. The mulch is shredded wood chips from the tree service. Shredded junk mail/paper went down around my raspberries, was soaked with dish/bath water, then covered with shredded leaves.

I've been having difficulty with deer eating one of my apple trees that I planted this spring, so I changed to using wood pellets for cat litter this past week; once scooped/de-pooped, I put it down as mulch around the tree and haven't noticed any new damage since. I think I'll use it under all my young (non-bearing) trees to prevent damage from deer/mice/etc..

I've used grocery bags to send sweet corn, green beans and new potatoes home with friends and family members who have dropped by.

Instead of tossing the peelings from the peaches I was putting up directly into the compost pile, I tossed them to my banty chicks; they made quick work of them. I need to make a lower compost pile so that they can get in and turn it for me!

My daughter is a cheerleading coach; her girls are saving aluminum cans to help defray some of their expenses; so our cans, and the cans from work are being saved for them - in a large cardboard appliance box - easier loading into the truck for taking to the recycler.

[Pollyanna]

Ooops, forgot one: I recycled a full size cotton mattress pad from the Salvation Army store and an old (cleaned) shower curtain that I had on hand into 4 incontinent bed pads.

[Amorphous02]

I am now dwarfed by Pollyanna...hmmm
I will find the can-recycling place soon. But I have been recycling moving boxes and newspapers. For those of you who have grills, here is a tip from a TV show,"Ham on the Street". You can use newspapers as kindling. You need to wrap food in foil of course. Beats buying tons of charcoal.

[Amorphous02]

I forgot: I recyle all my envelopes to write lists for grocery shopping and create task lists. They work as memo pads.. you name it.

[markio26]

plastic peanut butter jar, i cleaned for left over canned milk container.....
i shredded part of a plastic store bag and used it to tie up my tomato plants to tree branch limbs for support.

[Amorphous02]

Thats a great tip: Please submit it to thriftyfun. If you wont , I WILL. :-((

[Pollyanna]

Amorphous, I've been doing the reduce/reuse/recycle thing for nearly 30 years; since my "Back to the Land/Hippy" years in the 70's and my very poor years during the recession of the late 70's / early 80's. It gets to be second nature after a while You don't even realize that people think you're weird until someone points it out to you that not every one does the things you do. I used to have a regular dumpster diving route that I followed during the 4 years that I lived in town...

I'm pretty much a cheapskate, so that is why I do some things. I figure that part of the cost of the groceries I buy goes to the packaging, so why should I pay someone else to haul it off for me, when it could be adding organic matter to my soil instead? I made the incontinent pads for my Dad's bed (he's a hospice patient) because I couldn't find good quality pads at the store; and the poor quality ones that I found were way expensive. Chemicals to control weeds are expensive, and I don't like to use them anyway; cardboard is free and adds to the OM of the soil.

The only thing that I recycled today was the cans from work for my daughter's cheer team

[Amorphous02]

"I'm pretty much a cheapskate, "
A cheapskate is some one who hurts other by not spending enough.
People like you help the environment so much...
Please submit your ideas to thriftyfun.com
Cant see this go to waste.
Grrr..Why do I get competitive when it comes to recycling. Pollyanna, readers, it is due to my mothers innovative Hi-IQ use of things. To date she is the best MYO-fix-it- reuse queen. My dad earns very well...
Its also probably because we suffer from the thrift gene.
So, today , I recycled the hot-water i used clean bottles...
cleaned out cat food cans for recycling( wish me luck) and recycled cereal boxes to hold local store flyers and reciepts....
There are 5 more hours to go..just you wait Henry Higgins.

[GoodBuyGirl]

I recycled some advertising magnets and hershey's miniture wrappers and made some candy bar refrigerator magnets with the kids.

[PrincessPerky]

That sounds cool! could you put a picture in or some directions?

[GoodBuyGirl]

There's really not much to it.
You just eat the candy bar that's the most important step lol. Then you cut out a piece of cardboard the size of a miniture candy bar wrap it up with the candy bar wrapper and glue it shut. After that dries cut a small piece of advertising magnet the size of the back side or slightly smaller and glue that on. That's it.
You can pretty much use what ever you want to make refrigerator magnets as long as the magnet you use is strong enough. Just make sure you glue it to the front side of the advertising magnet.
Photos work well.

[flinnie]

Collect soda cans from work,use plastic shoping bags as trash can liner,compost all food and
gardening waste.Give magazine to Thrift store.Reuse used typing paper to take notes.
Use cardboard in my garden to stop weeds.

[Pollyanna]

Speaking of good karma...

This isn't exactly recycling, but...

Every year, my Uncle and I plant way more sweet corn that we - and our extended families - can use. So every year, long about this time, I am calling neighbors and badgering co-workers to come pick corn.

One co-worker has a daughter that works in a small community thrift shop. The co-worker knows that I had been having trouble finding bed pads for my Pop, so she asked her daughter to keep an eye out for some at the shop. When they came to pick corn, they dropped off three bed pads for me.

One neighbor dropped off a nice roast (they raise cattle); another brought a bag of frozen blackberries she had put up.

Tomorrow, another co-worker and her husband are coming out to pick corn to put up. They know that I have a hard time getting out of the house since I am taking care of Pop. They offered to pick corn for me - and shuck it too! - in trade for their corn. The best part of the deal is that I get to stay in the house and cuddle their little grandson while they pick!

[Amorphous02]

Any lovely photos to share?
I know I want to grill that sweet corn. Yum...
May be we will grill some soon.
/how I wish I could plant something. Good for you.
My best wishes for a lovely summer Pollyanna. Thank you so much for sharing. are you on a coupon train? We could send some Landolakes and Mrs.Dash coupons to go with that peaches nCream corn of yours!!