Repurposing & Upcycling Stuff

Sometime last year, the local government almost bought a private property close to our other house purposely to use it as the town's landfill. Thankfully, the residents knew the cons so they unanimously opposed it during the public consultation and our little village has been spared from becoming a dumping site. But yes, it dawned on me that the current dumpsite might be nearing its limit, hence, they are scouting for a new one.

Waste disposal and management is one of the concerns nowadays, not only in cities or populated areas but also in the countryside. It's hard to imagine how things will be years from now.

The good thing is that some people are becoming aware of the future impact that repurposing, reusing, or upcycling stuff is becoming a common practice in most places. I say so because we see them in our streets and highways. Car tires are being reused as planters, plant beds, footpaths, or stairways. People are learning to make things useful in more ways than what they were originally meant for.

And that is awesome because, in a way, it helps minimize waste. I'm proud to say the same is being done in our household. It's been so for ages. When we were growing up, my parents used to repurpose plastic containers as storage for things. They didn't have to redesign, repaint, or decorate them, they just cleaned and reused them as they were.

That's the case for me too since I am lazy and lack creativity, but at least I upcycle things, instead of just discarding them, adding to the waste concerns in town. Let me share how we are helping by the little things we do at home.

One of the consumables we regularly buy comes in plastic containers or bottles. In these last few months, we must have purchased more than twenty bottled drinking water (mostly in 10 liters). Our tap water is no longer safe for consumption so we resorted to buying. That also means we are accumulating plastic bottles.

In addition to bottled water, other household products we use (fabric conditioners, detergents, cleaning stuff, and others) are in plastic, some foods are canned, others are packed in plastic boxes, and what else. In short, most things we buy are packaged in plastic or cans. The good thing is that we are responsible enough to do something about them and NOT just dump them wherever and whenever.

How? By reusing them as follows

👉 Planters or plant hangers

We reuse them to grow plants, flowers, ornamentals, seedlings, climbers and what have you. Almost nothing is discarded because we try to utilize them in the yard, no matter their size. Well, even ice cream boxes are repurposed to grow indoor plants.

👉 Storage

Looking at the photo below, one may think, why would a chocolate mix be kept together with the dog treats? You may have guessed, the can is reused as storage for my pup's feeds.

And yeah, even the ice cream pint is being used as storage for coins. We just washed and dried it then bam!