4 ways to reuse plastic grocery bags

Recycling is a great way to save the environment. We can reuse and reproduce the materials that we drink and eat out of. Nowadays, it’s a lot easier to recycle by have a big waste bin just for everything that can be recycled. If you can’t recycle now, you don’t care about the environment, and that’s NOT COOL.

Nice logo here on water reuse

Eat the cup!

Drink from the cup and then eat the cup!

Akala sandals: Another way of recycling

Several pictures of how used tyres become reusable footwear here…

“It’s wrong to think that old tyres can no longer serve for anything. A great number of Kenyans are wearing sandals made from those tyres known as Akala. AfricaNews photo reporter Lameck Nyagudi features the Akala in the pictures below.”

Long ago we had run a fun competition for our students posing the challenge of finding alternative uses for some commonly used household items like flower pot, key chains etc. Many students came up with bright ideas. May be we can try that idea whenever we want to throw things away.

The technique of Value Analysis uses a framework of questions to determine the functions and values of a product. One of the questions that gets asked is “What are the secondary uses this product has?” It will be interesting and useful such a question is pasted on garbage cans!

One of the ways to recycle is by joining or organizing in your area a “freecycle” program where people offer usable items they no longer need such as baby clothes, furniture, etc. for free. All you gave to do is go get it.

My family shops at the grocery store Whole Foods pretty often, and we always come home with tons of paper bags and lots of plastic containers (which are used to store the fresh foods, nuts, etc.). One way my family and I have decided to reuse and repurpose these containers is by putting our leftovers in them. They are the perfect size for a refrigerator and they are easy to clean. We reuse the sturdy paper bags for transporting miscellaneous things when needed.

If you would not like to reuse the plastic containers, you can always recycle them at your local participating Whole Foods: http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2009/01/gimme-5-recycling/

Every time we go to the grocery store we use plastic or paper bags to carry the food home. This is a waste of tons of paper and plastic and recycling can be expensive. To solve this problem we can bring our own reusable bags from home, but remembering to do this every time can be difficult. So instead we could also reuse the bags they give us for various purposes. In my family we reuse our plastic bags when we take our dog on a walk or to carry our lunch to school. Here’s a link with 20 creative ways to reuse your plastic and paper bags from the grocery store.