How to Recycle the Unusual

Image by chris satchwell

I am quite good at recycling. Well, I give myself 7 out of 10. I always rinse out my cans and bottles and put them in the appropriate bins for the collectors. I even strip off the paper labels round the cans!

I re-use my newspaper to make fires or to clean the windows and I am religious at folding down any cardboard boxes and making sure they are collected too!

If I have old clothes, I don’t throw them away – I usually give them to friends or to a local second hand shop so that they can make some money and get another lease of life with someone who loves them.

I turn off my electric lights when I go out, making sure all my plugs are off and I try not to let anything stay on standby – aren’t I good!

But there will be some things that you just don’t have a clue what to do with and I’m sure there will be some things that you couldn’t imagine being classed as recycled products – but trust me, there are!

Keys

These are the sort of things that often get shoved into drawers; keys that belonged to old cars, or old bike lock or keys that relate to an old house. Sometimes you may come across a bunch of old keys and wonder what on earth they were for – and also, what you can do with them?

Image by bohman

While it may seem impossible to recycle, there are lots of ways to give them a new lease of life. Scrap metal is hot right now, so if you have a lot of keys, a scrap merchant will probably give you money for them.

Ways to re-use them would be to sew into the bottom hem of curtains so that they hang straight (that’s an old wives trick!) or you could paint them a bright colour and hang them as a novelty light switch from the string of a bathroom light or ceiling fan.

A quick internet search would bring up lots of requests from artists who are dying for old keys to use in their many and varied sculptures and projects! So don’t just chuck them in the bin, get them circulating again!

A Trampoline Net

Most households with kids will be familiar with these contraptions – the oversized trampoline surrounded by the massive green net. I am sure the trampoline got a lot of wear at one time, but what’s going to happen to it when the kids tire of it and want the next latest thing?

Well, one way to keep the net going a while longer is to donate it to the local allotment – or if you have your own veggie patch, then use it yourself. It is the absolute perfect thing to use to keep birds and other creepies off your broad beans or peas – it’s a good height too.

And you get to save a fortune on expensive anti-bird netting from the local nursery too. A neat re-use there!

Dentures

Yes, there are people out there with their husbands or fathers false teeth, wondering what on earth to do with them – now THAT is serious recycling!

Apparently, the odds of a dentist being able to find a person with the exact same mouth measurements are pretty impossible – not to mention unhygienic! However, there are some charity denture places that would bite your arm off for old dentures – I guess they would just get the polyfiller out!

Some other ideas include donating them to a dental school, for students to prod about, or how about donating to the Plymouth University’s museum of dentistry if they are of historical importance!

You could also make a cast of them in papier-mâché or plaster cast and let the kids paint them, or keep the teeth for Halloween and set them into the mask of a really scary dummy!

There are people who make realistic looking dolls who are desperate for “real” pearlies, and there are many artists online looking for spare falsies for their various art projects.

So next time you have something you wonder; how will I recycle THAT? Have a hunt, you WILL find someone to take it off your hands and give it a new lease of life!

Gavin Harvey is a green machine, and recycles everything he can. He loves swimming, walking and writing blogs for Merritt Plastics recycling Ltd in his spare time.

How to Recycle the Unusual is a post from: Modern Hippie Mag

Modern Hippie Mag is an online resource dedicated to promoting hip, healthy conscious living and environmental sustainability. Featuring engaging articles, podcast interviews and video features, Modern Hippie Mag is “Where it’s hip to BE!”