Tag: low waste home
Upcycle Sunday: Notepaper box
A little while ago we bought some beautiful handmade soaps which came in nice boxes, which I kept. In case it hasn’t been obvious before, I’m a bit of a hoarder of useful looking things because I really like my space to be organised, but I also hate having to buy things to organise my space. I saw a post on Instagram about reusing scrap paper for taking notes or writing shopping lists which gave me the idea of an upcycle note paper box for my office. So below is a guide for the quick facelift I gave one of the soap boxes.
One Percent Changes: Buy in bulk
Tips to improve your recycling game
I’m obsessive about recycling! I recycle everything I can, even to the point of trying to clean aluminium foil (not that it’s always successful). More and more initiatives are popping up that use recycled material to make everything from benches and school desks, to light-weight bricks, road surfacing and roof insulation. However, current recycling stats for South Africa show that the recovery rates for recycled cans is at 69%, but only 17% for plastic (visit Treevolution for more stats and lots of really good information on recycling). This means that of all the plastic waste that is generated across the country, only 17% of it makes it to a recycling facility. This low figure is due to a combination of factors: Continue reading “Tips to improve your recycling game”
Upcycle Sunday: plastic bag dispenser
If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a small mountain of plastic bags left over from the bad old days before they were regulated. Of course you can recycle them, but it works out a lot more ecofriendly if you keep using them for as long as possible and only recycle them when they have worn through. Continue reading “Upcycle Sunday: plastic bag dispenser”
One Percent Change: Choose produce with fewer types of packaging
One Percent Changes: Reuse shopping bags
Yolk Cloth reusable face cloth
One Percent Changes: compost your egg boxes
Upcycle Sunday: storage jars
Ok, last week I said that the upcycled tissue dispenser was the easiest DIY project ever, but I have to revise that statement. THIS is the easiest DIY project ever! As bulk shopping becomes more of a popular choice, there’s a lot of emphasis being placed on reusable jars, and generally these are assumed to be glass. But why buy something new when you already have what you need at home, right? I started buying body lotion in tubs rather than the squeezy bottle things because I like being able scrape out every last drop of lotion! But the jars are actually quite nice, because they’re made of a durable plastic. I would advise against keeping them somewhere with direct sunlight as there is always a slight risk of chemical leeching as plastic degrades. However, other than PET (Type 1 plastics), most other common household plastics have been deemed safe to reuse.
One Percent Greener 