We all know that recycling/reusing is great, but there is always the problem coming up with ideas on what to do with certain items.

How about some different ideas on how to recycle/reuse various objects? Do you know any unusual ways to reuse various everyday things that sometimes just get tossed out?

When I was a kid, other kids and I took two empty yogurt cartons and connected them with a fishing line. We then placed one of the cartons up in the treehouse and the other end at the base of the tree. The idea was to create a communicator (phone) system.

Of course it didn’t work.. but it did keep us entertained :)

..and though the “phone” didn’t work, there are things that can be done (and work) with empty yogurt cartons and any other “throwaways”. e.g. making our very own musical instruments.

Music.. the communicational language of humanity. If you think about it, making musical instruments with discarded stuff is a great way to introduce children, and others alike, to sounds and music.

Click here for a sample of sound that results from blowing into a plastic tube

*Come to think of it, at the treehouse the yogurt cartons did make a peculiar sound when the fishing line was pinched.. so, instead of a phone, I guess we ended up with a doorbell :)

:) A few years ago I went on a camping and caving trip to Carter Hills Caves, Kentucky. They had a show made up of several musicians all with instruments made from common objects, no "actual" instruments, it was fabulous. I don't remember what they called the program and apparently(after checking) they no longer have the show:(

I just started "brown bagging" my walls. Others may have tried this, but it's relatively new to me. A lady I met last year had done it to her walls and I liked it, so after months of having anyone I knew who used store bags or those who sometimes got caught short of the bags they needed save all the paper bags they could for me, I've finally started my living room. I love the look myself, but it wouldn't be for everyone. It's also crazy easy....I was thinking of hiring a class of preschoolers to come help me;)

(I don't suggest using store bags for the sole purpose of this project...somehow it just feels better when you know they were ging to end up in the trash)

In the last couple of years out of sheer boredom and hating to see things thrown out, I've started refinishing small pieces of furniture. I see old wood kitchen chairs and grab them up to paint them and put them in my yard.

Any ideas for soda bottles or milk jugs?

Brainstorm facilitators are the original recyclers. In their relentless pursuit of possibility, they look for value in places other people see as useless. To the facilitator in full mojo mode, "bad ideas" aren't always bad, only curious indicators that something of untapped value is lurking nearby.==Mitch Ditkoff

During our school days we used to have a period called SUPW (Socially Useful Productive Work), comically we used to call it SOME USEFUL PERIOD WASTE; although the period was really useful in the sense that we were taught as how to utilize our cognitive and manual skills to learn variety of crafts through paper, glass, scraps, cloth etc. which was considered as trash

Apart from as child's play we used to do a lot of similar activities out of scrap as part of daily pranks, infact, making toys of scraps were more valuable than the tools bought from shops. Making variety of articles from Match box (Toys of match-box:-chord receiver,truck, jigsaw puzzles made of them etc.)was great fun, and personally I think still remains good source of learning for children.

Newspapers continue to remain good source of craft and carry bags, I remember a friend making a beautiful chandelier out of old glass bottles. Glass bottles still remain creative mode to depict orchid based flower pots. We also made a lot of hand fans of plastic bags, pouches, old cards etc. and surely, these trash was/is utilized for making dolls and dolls house articles.

Musical instruments from common objects.. now that's what I call "Alternative" :)
It must have been fabulous indeed. Too bad though that the show apparently ended. I remember seeing a group a few years ago that had a unique combination of percussion, movement, and a bit of humor. I don't remember their name, but they were comprised of about 20 to 30 "band members" and they used trash cans, brooms, newspapers and such. The performance started very simple with hands clapping and progressed with more complex rhythms.

Brown bagging the walls?.. I admit that I never heard of it. What kind of materials do you use, Miss.. is it similar to papier-mache? I remember covering my school books with those paper bags and personalize them with drawings.. I don't remember much else really.. I might have done some school projects that I don't recall it.

Milk jugs can be used as bird feeders. Bottle caps can be used for making windchimes.. hanging them from branches of fruit trees and the sound of those caps keeps the birds from eating the fruit.

Many "throwaway" household items are overlooked because many people refer to them as junk. If we remove the word junk from our vocabulary, we start to see things for what they are (e.g., a bottle cap is a bottle cap).. and from there, we see or imagine what use that particular object might have.

But going back to windchimes.. besides the purpose mentioned above, they could also have a simple ornamental purpose.. and/or with thematic elements. And once they are hung, nature plays the music :)

Don't know where my brain is, I should have given more explanation...

Although I've found varying instructions on the net, I've done not much more than taking brown paper bags and tore them into different sizes..mostly a little larger than my hand, crumple them up a bit, dip them into wallpaper paste(spreading to cover all the paper that will get stuck to the wall) and stick them on the wall, with some overlapping. Crumpling is easier if the paper is a little damp, this can be done after dipping them into the paste...basically the more wrinkled the paper gets the better the detail.

Here's a closeup



And a wider view to give an overall effect

B, I think I would have enjoyed a class like that very much:)and I would love to see a chandelier made from old bottles. You've made me think of a dozen possibilities now.....

I remember making what we called "sit upons" in Girl Scouts eons ago. Nothing more than folded newspapers and some old plastic table cloth cut to fit, then wip stitched with some yarn through holes made with a hole punch. Good for sitting on the ground or bleachers.

LC, I don't mind the word junk so much, but it would be nice if people thought about what else they can do with things. A few years ago I came across a series of books called "Trash to Treasure", I think they even did a tv series on it, just the phrase seemed to get me looking at things differently. I know many people who try diligently to sort their "recyclables", but then toss everything else that doesn't fit into those categories, so countless possible "treasures" end up in landfills.....

It really looks graceful Miss, a very creative way of making the wall look differently attractive. Indirectly I must thank you too :), for there is a wall at one corner of my home bit home damp so I will do something same with that too.

Miss i like wat u've done to the wall except for the poor tiger who would prefer a green background for sure :P

btw guys i saw a documentary about using papers to make so many different things in a artestic way .... like making a bench or a lamp ... so any of u have any idea about that thing and where can i find a site for such thing!

Infact, recycling and making ceative products out of it is a great fun and gives us immense satisfaction after we complete it. It is a matter of aesthetics and art that we depict when we work on scraps to give it a beautiful shape. I remember a friend gave me idea of cutting the plastic bottles in half to use the upper end as flower hang and other end as carrier for knick knacks. Ahmad, as I could remember it is:Origami;when we make beautiful paper crafts.

There are also various sites telling about, use of other excess stuff recycled to make artistic things.