Practical recycling tips

[lainey lou]

Mr Treebus eat your heart out.....

[Paulottie]

We had a new bed and kept the heavy duty plastic it came in to use as cold frame glazing and when work a had new fridge delivered I claimed the polystyrene sheets that protected it to insulate the cold frame; much to the amusement of my work mates

Phil

Cool idea but be careful that when it starts to degrade in the sun, you remove it quickly; or you may find hundreds of little bits of plastic everywhere.

Love this thread.

[rustylady]

Only a quilter would think of this, but you can recycle cotton garments into quilts. You have to be quite careful in label reading or you get mixtures of cotton/polyester. I also cut off the buttons of any garment too shot to be recycled or sent to a charity shop. (I know, tight as a fishes bum!)

My grandmother used to use every part of a worn out garment. Buttons were cut off and saved in a huge tin, zips too. Sheets were turned side to middle and re-stitched, and when finally no good for the bed were turned into dusters and cleaning cloths. When we were children we used to keep a rag bag and made rag rugs with hessian sacks and strips of cloth using a latch hook. I still save buttons, good zips etc. Nothing goes into the bin if it can still be used.

[rustylady]

Wire coat hangers snipped in half (excluding the curvy hanger bit) make most excellent staple type pegs to hold down fleece, black plastic etc.

Where on earth do you get wire coat hangers from these days? I need some. They make good cloche hoops, and they're good for poking around in downpipes to dislodge blockages. Also, as you said, pegs for holding down netting, fleece etc.

[muckdiva]

Where on earth do you get wire coat hangers from these days? I need some. They make good cloche hoops, and they're good for poking around in downpipes to dislodge blockages. Also, as you said, pegs for holding down netting, fleece etc.

A 'Wanted' post on Freecycle yielded 20 hangers = 40 pegs, result!

[Two_Sheds]

Bottle Bed Edging

Upturned wine/beer bottles to edge a bed. No, I've never broken one

[bazzaboy]

Inevitably I can find you some, rustylady, if you PM me an address to send 'em. But you're right, I hadn't noticed, they've become scarce (scarcity value! ) I used one as a car aerial for years and somebody nicked it (the aerial not the car unfortunately....). Scrounging around I've located 14 that you're welcome to have - they probably originate from N Suffolk anyway (I used to live in Wrentham) so they'll be returning to their roots after a spell in the wild and woolly Midlands.

But what will I do with all that space?

bb

[veg4681]

I don't know if you have to a lottie owner for this section but I just loved reading this thread on recycling.

I was watching this Rick Stein Mediterranean food programme, he was in Greece where this family was using plastic laundry basket as seedling bed placed inside an old worn out car that was used like a greenhouse. Anything goes man.

I'm a fan of plastic punnets (for seed sowing), the deeper the better, holes or no holes both are useful whether you're using inside or outside the house (mostly window sills). The plastic box that you get with supermarket mushroom is even bigger, also make good cloche.

Also discarded old chest of drawers if you can find one in the tip. Could you not use the long drawer as readymade raised beds? Sorry getting carried away a bit.

[terrier]

I don't know if you have to a lottie owner for this section but I just loved reading this thread on recycling. ...........

Also discarded old chest of drawers if you can find one in the tip. Could you not use the long drawer as readymade raised beds? Sorry getting carried away a bit.

Not at all veg4681, if it works, why not use it. Plastic supermarket baskets make fantastic planters (of course, I wouldn't use them )
In the past I've collected old discarded bathroom suites. The baths make excellent water troughs for the horses and the sinks and loos end up full of flowers. The cisterns make good planters for anything deep rooted (potatoes?). All your used plastic milk bottles make good bed edging (bury them upside down half way, if that makes sense)
Old plastic worn out kitchen collanders make good hanging baskets. Making use of throwaways is half the fun of growing.

[Two_Sheds]

Also discarded old chest of drawers if you can find one in the tip. Could you not use the long drawer as readymade raised beds? Sorry getting carried away a bit.

Only if they're real wood - melamine/MDF will just disintegrate horribly in less than a year ... and its full of glue and nastiness

[bazzaboy]

LOL, yes lainey lou, you do have to guard against becoming like the mythological old lady who died and relatives clearing her house found a neat set of shoe boxes containing string of various lengths the last of which was labelled “String too short to keep”. But she could have made a duster, couldn’t she, or a washing up mop? Waste not want not!

A few more:
Bits of wire (particularly the power cable stiffer stuff) - plant ties. You have to take the rubber/plastic sheath off (tee hee, haven’t found a use for that yet, suggestions on a postcard…) then you’ve got three strands and the naked copper earth wire weathers to a neat green (verdegris).

Larger jars such as used for instant coffee, deemed unsuitable for jam and jellies, are OK for dried stuff or better still all those different screws, nails, nuts and bolts etc because stored on a shelf in the shed/garage you can see what’s in ‘em.

Old windows, cold frames of course - but they’re bothersome without some woodworking skills because of wind and broken glass… It’ll be good when double glazed uPVC windows are up for recyling as presumably rot proof and warmer…

Finished but unwashed Marmite jars half filled with water or milk and embedded in the soil make discreet slug traps (though I’m not totally convinced the slugs don’t nip in and then nip out again). Similarly nutshells smashed up a bit and used as a mulch seem to deter slugs but I’m not sure they don’t encourage other insects who think of them as a convenient housing complex…

Christmas and Birthday cards – use for shopping lists (does anyone still use shopping lists?), notes etc. Friends get used to receiving pics of robins on snowy gates in July (and it’s good preparation for climate change). I don’t recommend, as some hardliner recyclists do, that you cross off “with love from Auntie Flo” and send it back next year with a strident warning about wasting the earth’s resources, though you might want to try that with electricity bills…

bb

[terrier]

Bazzaboy, I wonder if you could use your copper wire as a slug repellant instead of copper strip? I've been meaning to try it, it's on my 'to do' list for next season.

[bazzaboy]

Champion idea, terrier, you deserve a prize for that one, well worth a try. bb

[Snadger]

Bazzaboy, I wonder if you could use your copper wire as a slug repellant instead of copper strip? I've been meaning to try it, it's on my 'to do' list for next season.

Copper has fungicidal properties as well! If wire is stretched across the top of a polytunnel the rain falling on it and running down the sides is enough to keep the green mould off the plastic, apparently!

[JennieAtkinson]

Copper has fungicidal properties as well! If wire is stretched across the top of a polytunnel the rain falling on it and running down the sides is enough to keep the green mould off the plastic, apparently!

I don't think I would be brave enought to put any wire near the plastic!