Saturday, October 10, 2009

Recycling Old CD’s and CD Cases

In this age of computers, we seem to go through CDs and their cases on a constant basis, leaving us with old CDs that we don’t know what to do with. CDs are great at reflecting light and if woven between the spokes of a bike will provide a very unique way of letting people know you are in the area. Broken up into pieces CDs can be used just like broken tile in order to make some unique garden type furniture that reflect the colors of nature around them.

Need to tell people where the edge of the street is at night and don’t want to go spend a lot of money on stake reflectors? Take some of your CDs and attach them to a garden stake, when the vehicle headlights contact the surface of the CD, they will get a shining reminder as to just where the road edge is, and you won’t have to spend a lot of money in order to tell them.

We all need coasters in order to protect our tables. Attach some felt to the back of your unwanted CDs and you instantly have coasters for your drinks. For the big CD cases that come with a whole lot of CDs In each case, fill it up with some rich soil, plant some seeds and put the top back on, now you have a miniature greenhouse.

There are a multitude of uses for these unwanted items, Your only limitation is your imagination.

Friday, October 09, 2009

Recycle Car Parts

Don’t know what to do with those pesky left over car parts? Turn them into furniture and jewelry! For the redneck in all of us, many of these things can be quite appealing. Turn gears into watches, or turn an upended transmission casing into a glass top table.

*Have a bunch of rusty old warped brake rotors you can’t use anymore? Turn them into clocks and sell them on ebay!

*Have an old hubcap from a car long since gone from your life? You can make that into a very stylish clock too.

*How about a worn engine bearing? Well heck, you can make that into a masculine bracelet.

There are innumerable ways you can recycle old car parts, you just need to use your imagination and craftiness and you could be the proud owner of a new glass top coffee table made from the back axel of your old beat up, worn out pickup truck! A good washing and possibly even a good paint job will ensure that your wife will be more likely to allow you to bring your creative genius inside the house. 

Have a past its prime motorcycle instead of a car? No worries, you can do the same kind of thing with motorcycle parts. If it has parts, you can make something else out of it, it all depends on how vivid your imagination is.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

What Do I Do With These Clothes, Goodwill Doesn’t Want Them

All of us at some time or another end up with clothes we can’t use anymore. Maybe we grew up some or grew out some but whichever we did, the clothes don’t fit anymore. Maybe we just plain wore them out.

A new technique for recycling clothes has begun to hit the market. Now you can take these unwanted items and turn them into quilts or even floor runners. You don’t need to cut them into patches and stitch them up, you use them just as they are and work them together to create some really fun designs, then just run stitch-lines across the whole piece, about an inch apart. Obviously you will want to use clothing and materials that are similar in weight so that you don’t end up with a lumpy piece that you can’t use. Coordinate your colors and create something fun. When you’re through, you can use the item to warm your bed or protect your floor.

Maybe you can use it to create a bed for your pet. Make a big bag out of the recycled material and fill it full of all of those unwanted packing peanuts. If you put the peanuts in a bag and put a zipper along one side of the material bag, you can make the pet bed completely washable. It’s light weight, won’t harbor little biting beasties and won’t have cost you anything but your time.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Green Chickens

Want to go green and have something good to eat? Back yard chickens are becoming very popular again. Raising your own chickens means you know exactly what goes into them so you can control the quality of the eggs coming out.

When you use the eggs, don’t throw away the eggshells, dry them out and crush them and feed them back to the chickens. This helps them to keep producing enough calcium to create more eggshell. Have some food left over from dinner? Within reason, you can feed your leftovers to your chickens. They enjoy fruits and grains and even some meat though in lower quantity.

If you let your chickens free range your property, you will also be able to help keep the bugs at bay. Wouldn’t it be nice to have fewer bugs on your property without spraying pesticides all over everything? If you grow a garden, you can also use the chicken’s droppings to fertilize your garden, it is high in nitrogen and your plants will love you for it. Basically you can start your own recycling system and be all the healthier for it.

Home raised chickens tend to produce eggs that are much higher in Omega 3 fatty acids than store bought chicken eggs which are much higher in Omega 6. Most people’s diets are too high in omega six and too low in omega three. This will be your chance to turn those figures around.