I like the theory and practice of taking stuff I might ordinarily throw out and finding a use for it. For example, I might make a watering can out of an empty detergent jug–just poke a few holes in the top and voila. Just as good as one I would have bought in the store, much cheaper, and more ecologically sensible. But I wonder if my limited imagination restricts other uses for the stuff I do pitch out. What’s your favorite?
The problem with this sort of thing is, there’s usually more garbage than needed for the new use. I mean, how many watering cans do you need, vs. the number of large jugs like that that you use over the course of a year?
I did something like this in my garden this year. I bought a pack of terra cotta watering spikes, that use old bottles to supply a steady seep of water to the plants in my garden. The old bottles would have been recycled, but even then, with 10-15 bottles in use, there’s a limit to how many bottles were (or could be) diverted to the new use.
My first thought is that the amount of water necessary to rinse out a detergent jug sufficiently to make it safe to use as a watering can might negate the advantage of not discarding the plastic.
Probably flannel sheets. Once worn out, and since we use nothing else, they do wear out, they get turned into kitchen rags and nose wipes, and once they’re too nasty for that, shop rags. In the end, they go on the compost pile. Except for toilet paper we barely use disposable paper products at all.
My opinion is that, while recycling hacks are fun, they make little difference in the scheme of things. It’s not buying the soon-to-be-garbage in the first place that will make an impact.
You’d be amazed at what people will take on Buy Nothing groups. Or even what people will buy on eBay.
I needed a little bit of sand for a project, and was able to grab some when someone local was de-commissioning their sandbox and giving away clean sand (all the rest got spoken for as well).
This week I sold some old scratched Tupperware on eBay that my mom was going to throw out. I’ve sold empty Apple product boxes too.
And I save almost all of my shipping boxes that come into the house, and packing paper. It makes it easier for me to be willing to sell something online because I most likely have the right sized box to send it in.
I use toilet paper rolls to hold cables.
The only useful way to implement greenery is to not buy the stuff in the first place. “Reduce” is 99% of the battle. Reuse and recycle are 1% feel good measures.
Right. We stopped buying liquid detergent almost two years ago, and now use these detergent sheets. AFAICT, they work just as well as any other detergent we’ve used, and there’s no lugging heavy jugs or disposing of them afterward.
I’ve reused eight Gatorade bottles that are filled with water and then frozen. They get used in our boat cooler in place of purchased ice.
I melt down aluminum cans to make aluminum ingots. Once I figure out what to do with aluminum ingots then we’re getting somewhere.
I do make funnels from plastic soda bottles, keep bottles of frozen water in the bottom of the chest freezer to use in coolers, fill air space to make it more efficient, and to battle ever increasing physical pain. I keep all sort of little boxes and jars to keep small parts in.
Otherwise, I don’t throw away reusable materials. Wood, plastic, metal get reused whenever possible. I know after 50 years of keeping materials like this I have thrown away more of it to make space than I have reused but I do make use of it. After construction projects where people usually end up with a dumpster full of scrap I’ll have much less having reused whatever I kept from the earlier projects. This includes tile and slate flooring also. I don’t mind scrapping metal because it’s going to be recycled. I make planter boxes, fence posts, and garden posts from scrap wood. I had to make dog ramps several times for old dogs. I use pieces of polystyrene foam for insulation, and packing material. Some of it left over from insulating the house but also packing material from appliances and the like. There’s a way to reuse a lot of things.
Unfortunately I can do less and less to reuse materials. My family will one day have to get rid of all that’s left. Sucks for them doesn’t it? 
I take our empty pill bottles to our local animal shelter/Humane Society. I asked the lady last time if they ever have enough; she said nope bring ‘em on.
The newspaper comes with a rubber band, we save them and take them to the office of the elementary school across the street where they can be used without the school having to buy more. We also reuse the twist ties from the store for nearly forever.
But I buy almost all my shirts from thrift stores. And I recycle my jigsaw puzzles to the local friends of the library sale.
All our non-meat food waste goes into our compost.
When I hit 70 I was eligible for a smaller trash can at a reduced waste removal price. We seldom even fill it up.
You can make lots of shit from aluminium if you have machine tools. But why are you collecting ingots in the first place rather than cashing in the deposit on the cans, if you don’t have specific plans for them?
We don’t pay a container deposit here in RI. Even if we did it’s still fun. I can make shit from them, hope to do that some day, but I already have a decent supply of aluminum stock in more useful alloys. Cans are nearly pure aluminum and the best use is casting them in molds.
Reading your post I was struck by the question: How many thousand square feet (and/or shelf feet) of sheltered (and unsheltered) storage do you have?
You have a very different way to live from my own limited experience. My total storage space now for absolutely anything / everything unused “Just in case” or “Needed one, they came in a 3-pak, might need the other two later.” is about 4 cubic feet. 24"x24"x12". Total.
I’m pretty much limit case small right now, and glad for it. But I do wonder about the mountains of stuff more rural folks leave for their heirs to dispose.
We’re both being rational. What works when space is nearly free and stuff is dear is different from when space is dear and stuff is nearly free. Vive la difference!
It would take a solid day just to sort through stuff in our barn and tack room. Then there’s a two story shed. Then our garage. Then the basement.
Some friends of mine who’re in their late 60s (like most Dopers) recently closed out the farm their parents had lived on since forever. They simply hired an auctioneer and said “Make it all go away. Including any building not fastened to the ground.”
They lived half a continent away from the parents who’d steadfastly refused to begin reducing anything from age 60 all the way to age 90. Acres of rusty crap everywhere. Ugh.
By far that was the meanest thing the parents ever did to the kids. Or so they said.
Since you asked… I have a 20’x8’x8’ storage container packed with materials, spare tools, and an old Vespa scooter my son thinks is valuable. I have over 1500 sq.ft. of basement that isn’t full of materials, but roughly I’m using at least 200 sq.ft. of it for that plus more space occupied by a couple of motorcycles my son thinks are valuable, and a lot of classic woodworking and machine tools that I consider valuable but I know aren’t worth that much. Also an old enclosed porch scheduled for eventual demolition with I’m not sure what is still there, but before getting torn down I’ll remove the pine boards from the walls and other useful lumber. In addition there’s sheet rock, large plywood remnants and 2x4s leaning against walls for upcoming projects in a hallway, and about 200 sq.ft. of attic partially occupied with lumber and log cabin pieces. Outside I have stacked up Dawn Redwood boards under a tarp on top of a section of a roller conveyor and two more sections of that as well. Further out in the yard about a ton of granite slabs and cut pieces of granite (a ton is not really all that much when it comes to granite, might total more than that with all the cut pieces).
ETA: In addition about 50 running feet of cabinet and shelving stacked floor to ceiling with hand tools and small parts.
But recycling does that, too. When you make useful stuff out of what would be trash, you’re not buying that useful stuff new.