Re-use, Re-cycle and Re-gurgitate

I try to be thrifty and think of the planet.  I put all waste paper and card in the recycling bank and, of course, all my bottles and glass jars.



I don't use chemicals if I can help it - not even on the weeds in my garden and certainly not in the house.  Actually I am not on mains draingage and have a 'foss septique' so chemicals such as bleach are not an option for me, as they would kill off all the good bacteria in the fosse.



Besides all that, I just loooooooooove to re-use things, just for the pleasure of giving something a second life.  I hate to think that, in the Western World (and I don't mean the life of Cowboys and Indians) we throw so many things away that could easily be re-used, just because we don't have the time or the incentive to do something else with them.  We buy dusters and cleaning cloths from the supermarket instead of making our own, for example.  In fact, I have a friend (don't worry, she doesn't read this blog) who buys those blue-and-white J-cloths and throws them away every day.



Now J cloths were invented in 1963 by Johnson and Johnson though the brand now belongs to Toronto’s Associated Brands.   Apparently J cloths are made from rayon fibre, derived from renewable forest resources, and can be washed and reused repeatedly.  However, my friend treats them like a more durable version of a paper kitchen towel and uses a new one every day.

But I don't want to bang on all this post about recycling - I'm sure you are all very eco-minded (although I have yet to find a friend who sees bleach as a noxious chemical - as I do) and good about recycling etcetera, etcetera... but I'm just going to show you this brilliant video about re-using a juice or milk carton (any tetrapak will do, I guess) and maybe you will will want to have a go.  (I''ll show you my results in another post).