Ideas/ways to re-use/recycle "rubbish"?

[Britesea]

When I was selling my duck eggs, the only size egg cartons that worked were the jumbo size. I ended up buying some, but in order to not run through them too fast, I offered a 50-cent reduction on the price of eggs if you brought the empty carton with you. That worked out pretty well; I think I only lost one carton in a year.

 

[Denim Deb]

Egg cartons are very useful. I use the Styrofoam ones for starting plants. And while I haven't done it yet, the cardboard ones can be filled w/a mixture of sawdust and wax then used to start a fire.

Of course, I use them for eggs as well, but when someone gives you an egg carton that has pieces of shell stuck to it, it's not one that I'll reuse for eggs.

 

[creativetwinszoo]

We do live in a very toss away society! It's very sad :'(
So much that would be used for something else just gets tossed is horribly sad. There are some things that just are done and no more use but way too much that could be reused or recycled or repurposed even!!

Paper like magazines and mail can be shredded or left as is, soaked in water compressed and dried to make 'logs' to use in fire. We've been using most of ours shredded for rabbit bedding (way cheaper than buying bags of shavings!)
Old pallets are great to pull apart and be repurposed for furniture like lawn chairs and tables or even rabbit/quail/chick hutch (I plan on doing this very soon with some boards we had planned for something else!
Ours ducks 'laying coop' I an old cupboard just flipped on its side with a hole on one side and the door on top so we can reach in and pull the eggs out.
Out eggshells we rinse and dry, grind up and feed back to the layers. Though grandma used to use the bigger cup side to start seedlings. . Lol woops getting carried away here ^,^; so much repurposeing!!! >,<

 

[baymule]

Ireland is interesting in that it encourages recycling enthusiastically, but at the same time, it doesn't give people a cheap, or free way to get rid of unwanted vehicles? I remember in South Africa how we bought and salvaged secondhand parts for car repairs, it's not an option here, unless you quietly do it yourself. If cars here don't pass their annual NCT inspection and the repairs needed are too steep, many of them simply get abandoned somewhere, usually at an abandoned house. This one had no less than 14 vehicles in it's yard and some trailers:

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Some of these vehicles were still in fairly good condition!

No salvage yards??? Here in America, salvage yards are a big business. When I was a parts purchaser for a garbage company and needed a large part, I started calling salvage yards. Many of them were on a radio and they would describe what I was looking for and somebody at another salvage yard would answer. I'd get their phone number and call them. That's just stupid that there is no way to dispose of used up cars. Even wrecked cars have good useable parts.

 

[sumi]

Exactly @baymule! I find it so ironic that while this country is so keen on recycling household waste, these things happen?

@creativetwinszoo Do you make your own fire logs? I've been buying some recently and I must admit I'm a fan… I'm not very good at starting fires still and these are a great help. I'd be interested to see if/how I can make logs to use to start and get the fires going for awhile.

 

[baymule]

Sumi, when I was a poor single mom years ago, I lived in a shotgun house with wood heat. (and a leaky roof) Because it was faster, I cooked bacon in the microwave between paper towels. I found out that I could lay my wood in the heater, put the bacon grease soaked paper towels in between the logs, light it and the fire would soon be crackling. I saved my bacon grease, swiped it on newspaper and lit the fires with it.

And if you're wondering what is a shotgun house, it was called that because you could kick the front door open, fire a shotgun and hit every room in the house. All the rooms were in line with each other, the houses were narrow, basically one room wide.

 

[creativetwinszoo]

@sumi, we don't currently make them but with how much paper arrives in the mail I feel we should! >,< we're currently shredding the paper to use as rabbit bedding :/ he seems to love it way more than the woods chips kid sis was using before!
I found that log tip on Pinterest and defiantly plan on trying it soon as I have that issue as well -_- as baymule said, bacon grease is fires friend!

 

[Britesea]

It might smell so good that you would end up being hungry though...

 

[Beekissed]

Though grandma used to use the bigger cup side to start seedlings. . Lol woops getting carried away here ^,^; so much repurposeing!!! >,<

I seem to recall this idea many years ago...70s...coming up in the MEN mag, but it's good to refresh my memory with it here. Thanks!!! I think I'll be dragging that idea out when I start my mater seedlings come spring. Right now they just get tossed back to the chooks, but I'll remember to keep those fat ends for myself.

 

[Mini Horses]

You can use newspaper to make starter cups for plants...and they are biodegrade Of course, if my grandma got a newspaper it was "out house" bound.

You can also make fire starters with an egg carton -- the gray paper ones -- some wood chips and wax. Chips in the egg spot, add some wax, cool, cut the carton at each egg chunk and light up. Not quite as good as bacon grease but, works. Those starter logs are wood and wax. OOOOPS...see DenimDeb previously posted this use.