Vitamin Green

TetraPaks are very common in our home nowadays, and its good to see that someones recycling them for useful applications – notebooks, diaries, napkins, toilet rolls, pens and even roofing. This IS in India

Make tote bags from old tank tops?

Another gem of an idea from CraftyNest with a really great tutorial on how to do it the right way.

Note: Make sure you are using the right kind of top and decide the size based on your ’strap strength’ (see the instructions).

We can’t wait to get started!

We love practical and achievable goals for the environment…and this idea — a phone line for recycing all kinds of waste seems like one that could work really well for a city like Panjim (or Madgaon, or Vasco, or Mapusa…)

See how it works in NY through the Call2Recycle program.

As we’ve said before, nothing works like convenience…

We think recycling plastic waste usefully is an impressive achievement, because thats the one kind we’re often at a loss to reuse. Which is why we find a couple of companies based in Delhi really interesting…

Conserve and Thunk seem to have figured how to convert plastic bags, waste cloth and other waste into really attractive ‘upcycled’ products like bags, wallets, footwear, stationery and home decor items. They make great alternatives for leather (and other materials) we are using today and as gifts too…

I read about cloches on the You Grow Girl website. A cloche can be thought of as a bell-shaped mini-greenhouse that gardners use to protect plants from frost, insect or rodent attacks, provide additional humidity or general protection for plants until they are able to look after themselves.

I’ve been having trouble with field rats that seem to enjoy feasting on the roots of my baby plants. I thought this was an innovative solution to keeping the rats out till the plants are able to look after themselves. Of-course, these are made from recycled soft drink bottles and have all the positives mentioned in our previous post.

These are really easy to make. Take a pointy-tipped  serrated knife and poke a hole in the bottle about an inch or so above the base. Slide the knife in and cut the bottle all around so that the bottom comes away. Using scissors you can neaten the cut edge to remove all traces of clumsiness. And that’s it! Your cloche’s ready to use. Use larger 5 or 10 litre bottles for bigger plants.

We’re always on the lookout for ways in which everyday things can be reused instead of being discarded after a single use.

While walking through the riverine island of Chorao, I came across a house where someone had very cleverly re-purposed used soft-drink bottles as plant containers in an elegant composition on a low wall. One was designed like a hanging basket and was used to grow mint! A third design (not in the photos) was a simple one where the top had been cut-off to make a 6″-8″ deep, tall container and it had the shorter variety of sanseviera (mother-in-law’s tongue) growing in it.

I like this idea because one can create a colourful array (some soft-drink bottles have attractive stickers that can be kept on) of containers at no extra cost, and more importantly, by not bringing new goods into your consumption basket. While I’m not a big fan of bottled soft-drinks, I could just as easily run to my local bhangarwala (recycler) and buy these from Re.1 to Rs. 10 a piece, depending on the size.

Put in a friend’s favourite plant and this makes a great little gift. These containers can also be used to germinate seeds before you put them out in the open.

I’ve found that a great recycling project is something that’s easier said than done. But this example is something that is, at the very least, extremely inspiring.

What I like best is that the transformation is achieved partly due to good aesthetic sense, partly due to innovative arrangement of the elements and also to some extent the acceptance that the bookcase will not be ‘perfect’. I think that all of these are important for recycling activities to be a satisfying activity.

From Craftynest