Ways to Reuse Garbage

The image of the open seas conjures up thoughts of cleanliness and purity. Our trash is making that image less real with every passing day. The Pacific Ocean is now host to a 3.5 million ton island of floating trash twice as large as Texas. So far, we have been able to avoid thinking about the growing problem of garbage disposal because we've been able to distance ourselves from being personally affected. But no one can argue that fouling the world with trash is a good thing. The less we use, the more we re-use, the better shape we'll be in.

Minimize Use

• Sharing a bag, or not even using one, is a simple step to minimize use.

  Maybe the easiest way to re-use is to not use in the first place; we've all heard the advantages of using canvas bags to carry our purchases. In the produce section, items that are sold individually or per bundle can all be put in a single bag. A bundle of cilantro, a bunch of carrots, and a mango can all share the same bag. Before every purchase, think of ways to avoid extra packaging.

Simple Re-Use

• Rinse and re-use that plastic bag instead of a roll of plastic wrap.

  Much of the packaging we encounter can be re-used for the same purpose again. A plastic produce bag that held carrots, for example, can be used to cover up that leftover plate of meatloaf, avoiding the need for plastic wrap. A yogurt container can be saved to store soup. Aluminum foil can be re-used many times.

Tried and True

• Not a new idea, but a good one: use jars to create an easily accessible storage system.

  Generations have used empty coffee cans to hold everything from nails to worms. And speaking of nails, you can attach jar lids to a block of wood to create an easy storage system. Take the lids of empty glass jars and screw them into a board. Suspend the board, lid-side down, and fill the glass jars with sorted hardware. When screwed into the attached lids, it makes a visible and easy-to-use storage system. And although it's almost a running joke, your depression-era relatives learned to use and re-use gift wrapping paper.

Cleaning Up

• Why buy a cleaning cloth when an old tee-shirt will do?

  Don't throw out that old T-shirt just yet. When shirts, socks and old towels have reached the end of one life, add a new incarnation as cleaning rags. Toothbrushes can become scrubbers. Even an old bathmat can become a new floor mop.

Go Artsy

• Purses from gum wrappers, wallets from old cassette tapes, birdfeeders from empty water bottles -- those with a creative mind can "re-purpose" what would otherwise be discarded. And to really cut loose, take that trash and turn it into art.