Find Your Repurpose: Green Crafts Projects
Trim your budget and your planetary impact by reusing "garbage."
March/April 2009
By Misty McNally
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Instead of buying new toys for your pet, sew a few scraps together and stuff with cotton.
Photography By Povy Kendal Atchison
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When it comes to the three Rs—reduce, reuse, recycle—reduce is the trump card, but reuse comes in a close second. Making something new from something used saves money and resources—and makes you feel good, too.
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“The key is, whenever you have something you’re going to throw away, stop and think, ‘Is there some way I could make use of this?’” says Todd Larsen, corporate responsibility director for Green America (formerly Co-op America). “It’s a habit we could all get into.”
Stumped? Let the kids figure out what to do with it, Larsen says. “They have the greatest imaginations—a kid will make a telescope or a toy out of it, or use it for a craft or something else they’re building. The most creative ideas come from them.”
Coming out of the closets
• Don’t ditch the shirt over a lost button. Remove the button you’re least likely to see and use it as the replacement. Or buy different buttons for a brand new look.
• Breathe new life into old footwear at the shoe repair shop; replace heels or soles, repair linings or just get them shined up.
• Patch it (iron-ons are easy!). If it’s no longer suitable for the office, wear it for cleaning, painting or gardening.
• Host a clothing swap party. Invite all your friends to bring their unwanted clothes and trade!
• Tear T-shirts into rags for washing windows, waxing the car or paint clean-ups.
• Repurpose old socks by cutting them into strips and clamping them to a mop handle with a clamp apparatus. (Use wool for dusting, cotton for wet-mopping.)
• Worn-out knees on your jeans? Make cut-offs.
• For a wine bottle or coffee cup cozy, cut the sleeves off an old sweater, then felt in the washer. (Felting is a process of washing and agitating yarn in hot water to make it shrink and become more dense. Make this cup cozy today!) Cut or roll the edges to the right size.
• Cut the sleeves off a team T-shirt, then sew the waist closed for a reusable shopping bag with personality. Make this reusable shopping bag!
• Put together a kids’ clothing exchange at your church, neighborhood association or scouting troop. Then let the kids show off their wardrobe-swap favorites at a fashion show.
• Turn the top half of jeans into a durable, retro bag by sewing the leg holes closed and attaching a belt for a shoulder strap. Make this jeans purse!
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