Recycling

I am very into recycling. I have never been comfortable with throwing anything away, probably because I was born a couple of years after the end of WWII. No one threw anything away, food scraps, veggie peelings etc were fed to the chickens, anything extra was exchanged with neighbours
(we had chickens and Dad swapped eggs with honey from bee keeping neighbours and sugar ration coupons with another neighbour who didn't have a sweet tooth). Sheets were sewn sides to middle when they were worn, worn out towels etc were used as floor cloths, our white summer shoes were used as sandals the following year when our feet had grown as Dad cut the toes out of the shoes and we had peep toe shoes instead!

I recycle as much as ever I can, using the various recycling containers our council supplies us with: for glass bottles and jars, tins and foil, most plastics ( not black), newspapers and magazines, envelopes, scrap paper, plastic containers, margarine, cream and yogurt pots, and cardboard.  Plastic carrier bags, plastic wrappings from bread or magazines are taken to the local supermarket bin. I re-use plastic carrier bags whenever I can or use cloth bags, some I have sewn myself from old fabric.

I try to take it a little further. If I can't re-use glass jars I pass them on to neighbours who can use them; I keep some margarine cartons to use for left overs in the fridge and freezer; shred any personal papers and add to the newspaper recycling; use torn up scraps of paper for grocery lists/ phone messages. I re-use wrapping paper and gift bags and cut up old greetings cards into postcard style notelets and gift tags.

I try never to throw food away. So I plan what we are going to eat a few days at a time and only buy food for those few days. If I suddenly find I have some veggies hanging around in the fridge I make a veggie based meal - soup, stir fry etc. Peelings and food scraps go into our garden recycling bin(allowed in our area). If I am making a rice or pasta dish I always cook more than we need for that meal and the remainder makes lunch for the next day or I add extra ingredients and turn it into another meal the next evening.


I use old T shirts, towels etc for cleaning rags and try to use paper towels and one-off products as little as possible.

And of course I follow the same principle in my Quilting Life, using scraps all the time and never throwing a tiny scrap away if it can be used in my projects.

I would love to hear how you approach recycling, both in everyday living and in your crafting hobbies.