Earth Week ~ Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Got an old pair of jeans hanging around? You know the ones I mean - the jeans with the ripped knees, or your favorite pair that just doesn't fit anymore....

Turn them into something else that you can use.

Make a book cover - or cover an old binder. Those pockets are great for holding pencils, pens, a flash drive.

If you have lots of pockets, you can turn them into pocket purses, or hang them on the wall to organize small things.

Jeans make great placemats and coasters. Cut off the legs and use the top part to make a satchel. Turn the legs into lunch bags.


 You can find these projects and more in Re-Craft: Unique projects that look great (and save the planet) by Jen Jones and Carol Sirrine (Capstone Publishers, 2011). In addition to jeans, there are projects that will turn old T-shirts into wearable items - and even a dog toy. If you don't have a dog of your own, you can always make a bunch for your local animal shelter - that is, if the gardener in your family hasn't already appropriated the T-shirts for tying up tomato plants...

Jones & Sirrine have ideas for recycling cans, bottles, and even CDs. They note that each month nearly 50 tons of CDs are tossed into landfills. "That's the weight of a herd of elephants!" CDs are also made of the hardest plastic to recycle. So they put on their creative thinking caps and came up with some cool uses for old CDs - and their cases.

The authors have an entire section devoted to crafts from natural materials: twigs, pinecones.... stuff you find laying around which - when you tire of it - can be tossed into the compost bin to biodegrade. That's nature's way of recycling. And there's an easy recipe for how to make your own 100% recycles paper for note cards and other art projects.

What will you  make out of the stuff hanging around your home?  Review copy provided by publisher.