Toggle sidebar

What have you recycled?

  • Come along to the amazing Summer Moot (21st July - 2nd August), a festival of bushcrafting and camping in a beautiful woodland PLEASE CLICK HERE for more information.
M

mikethescout

Tenderfoot
Aug 13, 2009
54
0
swindon
Hey all,

At easter im helping run a district camp with a Green Theme. We will be running activities through-out easter weekend to do with the subject (recycling, reduce your carbon footprint ect..)

I was thinking about running to activites based around making things from recycled objects, so i need some ideas of what to make(so far I have meth burners from coke/beer cans)??

Instructions and pictures would be helpful:)

Thanks,

Mike
 
I ran a project at school recycling carrier bags into a sewable material - the kids made all sorts of stuff, from clutch bags to iPod holders. I will post a pic of the messenger bag I made to kick off the project and tell you how to do it, if you're interested. Can't do it 'til Monday as the bag is in work...
 
Old trousers (legs) made into bags to hold tent pegs etc.. etc..

Plastic bottles filled with sand sphagnum etc to become a water filter.

Use the fat and dregs from cooking to make fat balls for the birds to feed on.

Think i'm teaching Granny to suck eggs here,sorry mate.:)
 
Kerne said:
I ran a project at school recycling carrier bags into a sewable material - the kids made all sorts of stuff, from clutch bags to iPod holders. I will post a pic of the messenger bag I made to kick off the project and tell you how to do it, if you're interested. Can't do it 'til Monday as the bag is in work...
Click to expand...

I'd like to see that too please
 
It feels like I recycle just about everything - and much of it inspired by articles on this forum.....

milk cartons into night lights, chicken feed scoops & mini drip trays
biscuit tins into billy cans
Clothing into bags & other clothing
Sleeping bags into underblankets
Blankets into clothing (underway atm)
Garden tools & files into knives & strikers
Exhaust ducting into hobo stoves
Old inner tubes into "ranger bands" - very handy!
Old tires into ice shoes (semi abandoned until the weather turns bad again)
Bed frame into a buck saw


...... Um I'm going to stop there as I'm feeling a little uncomfortable typing it all out on one post...... I think theres more!

ATB

Ogri the trog
 
"Upcycling" is the current buzzword for what another thread is calling "wombling". I much prefer wombling!:)

As promised, this is how I recycle carrier bags with the kids at school:

I have had to teach a textiles class since Sept. 2009 and was grubbing around looking for a project when I came across a great US site called Threadbanger - which tries to make sewing cool and trendy for young people. They have a video of how to make a laptop bag from recycled bags and a link to this video showing how to fuse a carrier bag into a strong, sewable material. All you need is an iron, an ironing board, greaseproof paper (essential!) and a supply of bags. As I had a heat press at work (A2 size, for dye-sublimation printing) I used this instead of an iron and so managed to get larger bits of "fabric" by stacking bags rather than folding them - I'm sure that this could be done with an iron if you used a larger ironing area than an ironing board can offer.

Once the material has cooled, it can be sewn, either by hand or on a domestic sewing machine. I made a messenger bag and a couple of purses to demonstrate what was possible and to kick the project off:

Bag made from M&S carrier bag and some charity collection bags:
bag1w.jpg


bag2e.jpg


Purses, one from a single Tesco bag (with zip and a keyfob) and one from a single ASDA bag with a popper closure:
bag3o.jpg


Some of the kids preferred to make small bits of the material and then sew them into a patchwork sheet before using this to make their projects - this can look really effective. Thicker bags do not need to be folded so often and some bags work better than others (Sainsbury's bags can be brittle - I think it is the orange dye in them)

Don't know if this is of any use to you but it's great fun. The kids loved the project and made some cracking stuff.
 
turning files into knives is the kind of recycling i do, but i doubt it would be possible to do there (unless your in a metal workshop or something) and they couldn't easily go home and do it themselves.
that bag making looks great!
 
Kids in africa used bits of wire from tyres and bottle caps to make toy cars / buses, inner tube strips for fastening line to cane / bamboo to make fishing rods, then more inner tube to fasten a reed float to the line (adjustable depth). Inner tubes again used to make lethal catapults for knocking vermin and crows down. Plastic bottles for bait carriers.
 
_scorpio_ said:
turning files into knives is the kind of recycling i do, but i doubt it would be possible to do there (unless your in a metal workshop or something) and they couldn't easily go home and do it themselves.
that bag making looks great!
Click to expand...

Whilst not wholy hand tooled.....
http://www.greenpete.co.uk/?page_id=503
It doesn't take a huge leap of imagination to see that it is possible, even if time-consuming!

ATB

Ogri the trog
 
Made a wormery recently from 4 curbside recycle boxes, soon to get worms and start making worm compost and worm tea.. :D Does that count as 2 bits of recycling as I've used the boxes or just one continuous one eating up all the spare veg that doesn't go into the compost heap? Hmmm...


Cheers,
 
Those bag things look interesting.

(I generally recycle things by using them as Ebay packaging...or stove fuel)

How about that oft overlooked but oh so fun substance paper mache?

You can make it into many things, including in 18th centry Norway, a church that lasted 40 years!

egg boxes are a good easy source
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

BCUK Shop

We have a a number of knives, T-Shirts and other items for sale.

SHOP HERE
Top Bottom