Reuse

If you garden, you may want to get more details on using coffee grounds in your garden. Sprinkle some around acid-loving plants and when they’re watered, the plants will receive some of the slow-release nitrogen. What are acid-loving plants? I don’t know (although apparently rosebushes are). Test a little bit of grounds on your plants and see if they help or kill. P Even if used on the correct plants, going overboard can be harmful.

Reuse

Rechargeable batteries are reusable. |

Reuse

Donate. Depending on where you donate, the phone ends up recycled, refurbished, resold, or actually donated. Phones and proceeds usually go toward a charity. Before you donate, remove all possible information from your phone. Here are some links major phone/accessory/battery donation programs with convenient drop-off locations:

• AT&T (Cingular) – Phones are recycled as part of the EPA’s Plug-In to eCycling campaign.
• Sprint – Receive account credit or donate to Sprint PROJECT CONNECT.
• T-Mobile – Phones are resold, refurbished, or recycled. All proceeds go to the T-Mobile Huddle Up program.
• Verizon Wireless – Raises funds for HopeLine program by recycling or refurbishing phones.
• Best Buy – Phones are recycled by ReCellular, who donates “dollars” to Boys and Girls Clubs of America.
• Staples - Goods are recycled and a “large portion of the proceeds” are donated to the Sierra Club.

You can find other drop-off locations using earth911.org’s search engine.

You can google “donate cell phones” or “recycle cell phones” and you’ll find many programs for collecting phones and fundraising. These programs are often done through mail. As with all charities, please confirm their validity/legitimacy before you donate.

Sell it on eBay or hand it down to a friend. See note in “Reduce” section about buying used phones.

Reuse

Ummm… actually, please don’t.

Reuse

If they’re too worn out (in an embarrassing way, not a fashionable way), keep a pair or two around for dirty jobs like painting, gardening, mechanic work, house work, or cleaning. These tasks are often found in community service, so these pants would be your “volunteer pants” P ).

Hand-me-downs. If they’re in an acceptable condition, give them to someone else who they fit and might want them.

Donate them to a thrift store. This may still be beneficial if the items aren’t in “sell-able” condition. (See note in the Recycle section.)

Make a pocket magnet to hold notes ‘n crap on your fridge.

If you can and are willing to sew…

• Extend the life of one pair of jeans by patching holes using scraps from another pair of old jeans. Fashion consequences are yours to consider.
• Make a large purse or tote bag. Bonus: built-in pockets!
• Make a laundry bag. Bonus: built-in pockets! Comes in handy if you’re like me and go to the laundry room in your jammies and need something to carry your keys and change.
• Make a dinky pocket purse. Here’s a version that’s more girly with lacy trim. The girlier version’s instructions say to assemble with hot glue, which doesn’t seem very durable. Then again, judging by looks, durability may not be a priority…
• Make a pocket purse that’s more utilitarian. If I ever made a pocket purse from jeans, I’d make this one.
• Make a quilt. Here’s a gallery of examples. Looks like previous quilting experience would be handy.
• Convert jeans into a skirt. Okay, now we’re really reaching.
• Make a denim organizer. Looks nice, but instructions call for an additional yard of denim. Booo-urns. On the up side, many of the projects above use the “butt” part of jeans. This project can use up the leftover bottoms of the legs.
• Make hot packs, a pillow/pillowcase, apron, wine bag, and other crap

Reuse

Cut off the bottom to make a cloche (or mini greenhouse). Use this to protect small/young plants from frost and/or intense sun and retain moisture and humidity. To anchor it down if need be, cut a hole at the top of the handle and stick a… stick… or wire down the hole into the ground. You can use the cut off bottoms as a seed starting flat (see #4 in link).

Use 1/2-gallon jugs to make scoops (see #3 in link) for cleaning your gutter or scooping soil, or scooping food goods for your family or pet goods for your domesticated animals.

Make a yellow jacket trap for your picnic or camping trip. Cut a couple dime-sized holes in opposite sides of a milk jug a couple inches from the bottom. Fill the container with water mixed with a bit of dish soap (preferably unscented) up to about an inch from the holes. Tie a small piece of bait (probably meat, or whatever you find they’re attracted to) to a string. Lower the string into the jug until the bait is about an inch from the water, then put on the lid so the bait stays dangling. Yellow jackets will have a hard time flying back out and when they hit the water, the decreased surface tension (thanks to the soap) causes the yellow jackets to drown.

Cut out strips for sturdy plant markers.

Cut off the top, thread your belt through the handle and you have yourself a hands-free bucket for when you pick berries or your nose.

Fill them with water to use as weights. (There are articles about working out with milk jugs, but I’m not sure how safe this is in terms of ergonomics. They’re not exact substitutes for normal workout weights because the center of gravity isn’t at the handle so they may cause unintentional forces on your wrist depending on the motion, I’m guessing. Any of you experts in the field recommend against using milk jugs to work out?)

Make a bird feeder.

As if some of the above weren’t impractical or tacky enough, there are plenty of lists like this or like this that include IMO some pretty impractical or ridiculous uses for milk jugs.

Reuse

Before reusing brushes, consider sanitizing them first by dunking them in Listerine or diluted hydrogen peroxide for several minutes. Putting them in the dishwasher or microwave may damage the brushes. Next, label the brush with a permanent marker to avoid it being used for the wrong purpose.

Use old brushes to clean stuff, commonly bathroom and kitchen fixtures, tiles, anything that has crevices or requires detailed cleaning. Be careful you don’t brush close to anything with coatings that can be damaged by the bristles (such as some glasses lenses).

Toothbrushes can be fun art tools. Create nice splatter/sprinkle patterns by dunking the brush in your painting medium, then run your finger over the bristles so they “flick” the liquid.

If you have one of those cheapie clear toothbrushes (probably from the dentist’s/orthodontist’s office), you can make a bracelet. Woo hoo.

Recycle

Typically toothbrushes are not made of recyclable material.

Recycline sells a Preserve line of toothbrushes made of recycled/recyclable materials. If your neighborhood recycling program accepts #5 plastics, you can toss these brushes into the bin. Otherwise, you can send the brushes back to the manufacturer to have them recycled. Keep in mind shipping indirectly causes pollution.