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Bits and Pieces...The reduce/reuse/recycle thread

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  • nick the grief
    replied
    Originally posted by Peteyd View Post
    A lot of company's are now using lambs wool packaging for their produce. this makes great insulation for sensitive plants for the winter... Just smells a bit lamby...
    since COVID I've got my prescriptions sent via post from Lloyds and the Insulin comes wrapped in Wool with 2 Frozen Gel packs ... I thought of hanging basket liners

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  • Peteyd
    replied
    A lot of company's are now using lambs wool packaging for their produce. this makes great insulation for sensitive plants for the winter... Just smells a bit lamby...

    Leave a comment:


  • Snoop Puss
    replied
    ^I use worn-out t-shirts for plant ties. Nice and soft and stretchy and you can tear/cut them to a suitable width for the type of shoot. Big wide ones for main stems, thinner ones for supporting bunches of toms, for example.

    Hello and welcome to the Vine, CClare.

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  • CClare
    replied
    When your jeans give up the ghost and you cut them up for rags cut the seams out first, they make great plant ties and are bio-degradable to boot. the tarparlin bags that buiding supplys come in can be unpicked and used to line your pallet compost heap, cover the water tank to prevent drowning birdies, cover the soil to kill off weeds, wrap around pots to keep the roots warm , the only limit is what you can think of to do with them.

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  • Chestnut
    replied
    Repurposed walking boot lace became a drawstring for a pair of trousers.
    Work decided to give us (compulsory) uniforms this week, but the flimsy elastic waistband failed to hold my trousers up when I tried them on....
    2 buttonholes on the sewing machine and a bootlace= problem solved!

    Leave a comment:


  • Guest's Avatar
    Guest replied
    Thought I would bump this thread for others now that many recycling centres are shut

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  • bikermike
    replied
    If you buy meat from supermarkets, and you chop and change between, you can end up with good-sized black plastic tubs and matching clear tops - instant propogator

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  • KevinM67
    replied
    Cheers folks.

    I'll use some to insulate seed trays next spring and the kneeling pad idea is a great suggestion - I'll definitely be doing that (not that I'm getting older or anything).

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  • Nicos
    replied
    I always have a couple of large pieces (about 3x5ft) to sit/kneel on when doing DIY at below waist height.
    Easy on the knees to kneel on and reflects heat back at you when sitting.
    Could you tape them inside large black bin bags and use it as a decent sized gardening kneeling pad?
    (For that I use bubble wrap... but polystyrene would work just as well , it's just more fragile)

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  • Jungle Jane
    replied
    You could use polystyrene pieces at the bottom of large pots to help with drainage or use as an insulated container to help plant roots stay a tiny bit warmer? There might be stuff on goooogle upcycling polystyrene projects?
    There is,I just found this hydroponic garden-
    How to Build a Hydroponic Garden | Garden Club

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  • Chestnut
    replied
    Glue it to garage walls in strategic places- I find it makes a useful ‘cushion’ to avoid scratching car bumpers/doors when reversing into garage and opening doors respectively...

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  • KevinM67
    replied
    Has anybody got ideas on what to do with polystyrene ?

    We got a new larder fridge and a chest freezer and I've dumped the stuff in the outside shed.

    I'm not that keen on the stuff personally - but I don't really want to dump it in the non-recycle bin and have used for landfill.

    Leave a comment:


  • GYOMalcolm
    replied
    Mini bokashi bin

    Two plastic fresh soup pots (Glorious, Yorkshire Provender, Waitrose, etc.).

    They must stack tightly together and have space at the bottom.

    Keep the lid of the top pot.

    Drill several holes in the base of the top pot, not enough to collapse it. The holes let bokashi liquid drain out.

    Jam the top pot tightly into the bottom pot.

    Hey presto, an airtight bokashi bin, 600 ml size. This volume needs about two heaped teaspoons of bokashi bran all told, scattered pinch by pinch as you fill.

    I use it for:
    1. Small-scale experiments.
    2. Kitchen worktop collection of food scraps to avoid having to open the main sealed bin too often.


    I use a plastic magazine wrap, kept on the bokashi surface, to pack down.

    I've read that you are supposed to point the outside black to keep light out. I'd probably do this if the bin was hanging around for long.

    You could actually keep a whole raft of these going and not buy a big bin at all. I don't, but maybe a one-person house who wastes little?

    Leave a comment:


  • GYOMalcolm
    replied
    Sometimes you can have unintended consequences. What are you doing to your garden? Here's a quote from the best answer to this question on Stack Exchange

    In principle, paper can be composted as well, but the fibres are usually bleached, which already introduces some chemicals into the paper. Most inks also contain harmful chemicals, so composting might not be the best idea. In a sense, composting paper could also be seen to be a waste. It takes a lot to get trees into paper form. Ending the life-cycle of the fibres by composting reduces the availability of recycled paper, and is at least partly responsible for chopping down more trees. (On a side note, greasy paper, like pizza boxes, should be composted, because oil is very hard to remove in the recycling process.)
    Even modern soya-based inks have other stuff in them. For me, the council recycling is the right place in this case.

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  • vixylix
    replied
    ^^^ sweetcorn or pringles?

    Leave a comment:

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