Reuse plastic bags
People in Britain use 8 billion plastic bags every year. The bags are manufactured from polyethylene, which is a product of the oil industry.
Plastic bags have many advantages over paper alternatives. They are lightweight and not voluminous which makes them cheaper to transport from the site of creation to the store. They are also durable and reportedly cause less environmental damage in their manufacture.
Because they are so light, plastic bags are not given so much focus when it comes to issues of landfill and recycling. Bulkier items such as cardboard, glass and organic matter are given greater consideration. However, once you start recycling your household waste and composting everything else you'll soon see that plastic becomes the major item in your black bin bag. However, it's just as easy to apply the mantra Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to plastic bags as it is any other resource.
Reduce
Plastic bags are very strong these days and can easily handle a maximum load. Reduce the amount of bags you need by using their full capacity. Alternatively, you can choose to use a non-plastic alternative, such as these bags made from reclaimed materials that are mentioned on the excellent Hippy Shopper website.
Reuse
Plastic bags are durable, which makes them perfect candidates for reuse. Keep a number of plastic bags in the boot of your car ready for when you next go shopping. Invest in a bag for life, which is offered by some of the leading supermarkets. You can also use plastic bags as bin liners; to keep your muddy trainers separate from your gym kit; to carry your books to work or school (choose a bag from your favourite clothes store for credibility). There's loads of practical uses for them.
Recycle
Plastic bags can be recycled. Many stores have a recycling bin for them in their car parks. Anything that can be made from virgin plastic can be made from recycled plastic. The quality is the same.
Plastic bags can be a pain to store though. We use so many of them that they often end up taking over a broom cupboard, downstairs loo or spare cupboard. So why not make a handy storage tube for them? Here's how. You'll need a large rectangular shaped piece of material, or the leg of an old pair of trousers; a piece of elastic; an old boot lace or chord; some basic sewing skills.
Lay the material flat on the floor and place the piece of elastic along one of the short ends of the material. Fold the material over the elastic and hold it in place with some pins. Sew the fold into place.
Next, place the chord at the opposite end of the material and repeat the above. However you will not have to tighten or tie the chord. Make sure the chord is a few centimetres longer than the material is wide. This will be the end where plastic bags are stuffed into for storage. You can use this end for easy access if you want to remove all the plastic bags for some reason, e.g. cleaning.
Turn the material over so you can't see the seams from the two short ends. Fold the material lengthways and sew the two long edges together to make a tube. Turn the tube inside out to hide all the seams. Pull the elastic to about half of its full tension and tie a knot next to where the two corners of the material meet. This will be the elasticted hole at the bottom of the tube where you pull out the plastic bags. Tie the chord in a bow for tidiness. Add a hook if you want to hang it up in a cupboard.
If you've made a storage tube like the one above, post a picture on the internet and show us the link.
caldini
1 Comments:
thought this may be of interest.
Xiamen China: It’s Bold, It’s Brash, It’s Trash
A young British Artist Daniel Groves is turning Rubbish into art.
There is nothing new about trash art. It is something which has been with us for the best part of a century. It burst onto the art scene in the early twentieth century with Dadaism, an anti aesthetic, protest art movement. It was brought to the fore in more recent years by artists such as the K Foundation aka KLF, the Art/Music outfit who shocked the art world by nailing 1 million pounds to a board and calling it art. They later put it up for sale for 500,000 pounds and spectacularly upstaged the Turner Prize that year.
What Daniel Groves is doing, following on from his Dadaist forefathers, is taking a highly politicized, highly ecological issue and using it to good effect.
In recent weeks there has been much publicity about container loads of recyclable refuse being sent, illegally, from Great Britain and Ireland to China where it is disposed of. Dan has put together a collection of conceptual pieces which using rubbish and putting them on the market in his native UK.
Ask as to his rational for doing this Dan coolly replies. “I feel very strongly about this subject and in an age where we are all becoming more and more aware of the damage that we are doing to our planet it is, frankly, shocking to me that governments and organizations are systematically flouting the very rules they put in place with regards to waste disposal.” “It is because of this duplicitous posturing that I wanted to highlight the injustices that are occurring in the best way I could, by creating art out of Chinese rubbish and sending back to Great Britain”
With the help of Art Studios Ocean's Bridge, Dan is achieving his goal. Oceans Bridge have commissioned his works and are busy developing a marketing strategy that will see the pieces go on sale in the UK and see all the proceeds go to environmentalist charities.
Ocean's Bridge is an American based Art Company with offices in Europe, the USA and China. They have received many accolades for their success in bringing genuine hand painted art to more people than ever before, both through their website - the world's largest commercial art gallery - and partnerships with retailers worldwide.
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