Recycling waste

[Meanqueen]

Here is the evidence, OK I admit it, I was caught on camera, stealing out of a big wheelie bin. Only joking, I was given permission to take anything I wanted, whoopee, I was in my element! I was out and about with my friend Becky from the Scrapstore, looking for anything that might be usefull to us. The best way to approach this was to knock on doors, and ask if we could rummage through their rubbish. We found people very helpfull, they wanted us to take stuff, to help cut their costs of sending it to landfill.

This particular bin was full of vinyl offcuts, the company makes curtain sides for lorries and trailers, they are made to measure so they will always have an excess. The pieces were varying sizes, and all colours, I'm sure we will find a use for them.

Another company is going to deliver some stuff to us, because we don't have a van, and someone else is going to save their broken tiles for us to make mosaics with. There is so much stuff going to landfill that shouldn't be, what we need are a lot more people to be creative and find new uses for these materials. Such a lot more could be achieved if only people reused and recycled instead of replaced.

Ilona

[Orfy]

Well done.

I often take a drive around our local industrial estate if I have a project that requires materials. More people should do it. Alot of people are to embarassed to ask though.

A sign saying help your self to our rubbish would help.

[Sunny B]

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My living room door, one of a pair I got from a carpenter's skip, none of the wibbly glass panes were broken, it didn't need painting or even cleanng, hardly, to think it was going to go into a hole in the ground. Makes me mad.

[Meanqueen]

What a lucky find Sunny, well done. I agree Orfy, people are too embarassed, don't want people to think they are a tramp or down and out. Pride is a silly obstacle that gets in the way of a lot of good ideas. Just go for it, get yourself in that skip.

Ilona

[LynneP]

Gosh, Ilona, if someone were building a coop, that would be a great choice between the structure and the siding. It could be sealed with tuck tape and be weather and waterproof for decades!''It would also be grand for drawer liners and shelf liner, and I'm sure crafty folk would have dozens of ideas.

[Dinchy]

We go to local flooring shops and ask if they have any offcuts of hardwood flooring (they normally have them left over from fitting floors) which we use for firewood. Last time we went they asked if we could use any display panels - they were changing the displays of wood flooring in the shop. They said if we wanted them we could have them for nothing - and they would deliver and unload them for us. Apparently they have to pay a tax or something on the amount of waste they generate. So we now have a huge pile of boards with solid, pre-varnished hardwood coving them....all ready for OH to turn into another coop for some lucky girls

[silky]

3333333333333.jpg

My living room door, one of a pair I got from a carpenter's skip, none of the wibbly glass panes were broken, it didn't need painting or even cleanng, hardly, to think it was going to go into a hole in the ground. Makes me mad.

I got a door like your, but without the glass. I put some mesh on it and it’s now the door to the hen run.

[lancashire lass]

I often take things from work (that would end up as rubbish, so I'm reducing landfill) Large cardboard boxes make great ground cover on beds to suppress weeds and act like a mulch, and then there's the pallets.... My latest acquisition out of a skip at work was:



We were having new fume hood stacks put on the roof, and these are some of the offcuts (between 18 inch & 4 feet tall) Hmmm, look like they'll make good planters, and the big tall one - for growing carrots

[silky]

What a great find.