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A Book Review: I can help Recycle Rubbish

I picked up Viv Smith's book, 'I can help recycle rubbish' and felt secretly pleased with myself. I like to recycle a lot of materials to create birthday cards, wrapping paper and make little gifts out of them. I also like to use these materials for my five year old son's school projects


Here's an interesting paragraph from the book:


"The paper you write on was once a tree that stood in a forest. Trees are cut down, taken to a paper mill. The wood is cut up and turned to pulp to make paper. We need to use the earth's resources sensibly so that there is enough left for the people who come after us."


Meaning of Recycling


"To recycle to make something new out of something that has been used before."


What can be Recycled?


Here are somethings I like to recycle:


  • Price tags of clothes are used as bookmarks.
  • Glossy supplements, glossy ads and leaflets are saved either to make b'day cards or to create something that is theme-based for Adi's school projects.
  • Materials like buttons, lace, etc are saved and kept in a box to add 'finishing' touches to b'day cards and other projects.
  • Little jewelry boxes, fancy sachets, all kinds of storable boxes can be used for different things. If you have three round shaped boxes, you can make a snowman out of it.
  • Same with old keychains.


Interestingly, I had read in Vanita magazine a story about a woman who recycles  any kind of cloth material. That really motivated me.  She talked about not wasting even a scrap of material. She would make rugs, hair  bands, bags with collage kind of work and beautiful shawls, sheets and scarves out of any material that lay wasted. She made curtains out of lovely, fading silk sarees and even made kitchen dishcloths out of old cloth scraps. Maybe we should all start doing such creative things to nurture the  'saving' mentality.


Now, would you like to recycle somethings so that it is not wasted?  


Think about it. Please.

Comments

Shilpa Garg said…
Wow!! Wonderful ideas for recycling!!
Price Tags as Book marks is cool, considering some of the brands use such large, sturdy tags with beautiful ribbons too! :P
And yes, a lot is needed for school projects too!!
Harish P I said…
Great ways to keep the world green. Thanks for sharing
Swapna Raghu Sanand said…
Hey Shilpa, Glad to hear you found these tips useful!

Thanks Harish! Hope it helps!
Anonymous said…
Hi Swapna,

I write to you on behalf of The Viewspaper regarding a major virtual conference on Twitter, i.e. Tweet-a-thon. We would like to invite you for the event as a panelist. If interested, please contact us at garvitak@theviewspaper.net

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Padhu Sankar said…
Nice ideas! Very useful post

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