Extreme Recycling

With Earth Day on the horizon, we always give a little extra thought to how we can reduce waste and improve our energy efficiency in our house. Of course, we all try to take our re-usable bags with us when we go shopping, but somehow there always seem to be a few plastic grocery bags that get into the house. Rather than throw them away, we’ve made an extreme sport out of re-using a bag as many times as we can before finally abandoning it to the waste stream. The trick is to find uses that allow the bags to be used over and over again until every possible use has been exhausted. Here are our favorites:

• Use them as packing material instead of Styrofoam or bubble wrap. And be sure to put a note in the package reminding the recipient to reuse the bags.
• Make a soft nest for your Christmas ornaments while they’re in storage.
• Pack some in your suitcase: they’re great for isolating your laundry and shoes from the rest of your clothes.
• Tuck them into your beach tote for wet towels and swimsuits.
• Use them for your toiletries when you travel. I wish I could say that I have a snazzy, monogrammed cosmetic bag for travel, but I actually use the same plastic grocery bag (or sometimes a big Ziploc) over and over again. Who’s to know?
• Line the bottom of something that needs filler: a flower pot, a basket filled with candles, and shredded plastic bags make great confetti for a gift bag.
• Cushion your china while it’s in storage.
• Store your outdoor pillows inside them during the off-season.
• Put one in your carry-on bag when you travel. How many times have you purchased food at the airport for your flight, and had it leak all over the contents of your carry-on?
• Our dog Jasper likes to eat the fluff out of his dogbed. When it starts to deflate, a few plastic bags make it nice and puffy again.

We stop just short of this:

Although we do admire the industriousness and creativity of Tyler Velten, an architecture student at Yale who designed and created the chandelier, we're not quite that extreme. Yet.