101 Things to Do with Used Wrapping Paper

Help me to build a list of 101 things to do with used wrapping paper. As I was wadding up a pile of tiny scraps it hit me that there had to be something cool that we can do with pieces of colorful, Christmas gift wrap that is over say two square inches or so?

1. Snip off the damaged areas or those that still have cellophane tape attached and either fold or wrap around a cardboard to use for wrapping gifts next year.


2. Recycle your used wrapping paper and use it to decorate leftover cardboard gift boxes and have them ready for next Christmas. Just pop gifts inside, tape the bottom to the top, add a bow and you're ready.


3. Layer in the blue several large pieces of paper together to make Christmas theme placemats for your holiday table.


4. Make a 60 Second Party Hat by centering a sheet of recycled gift wrapping paper over a ball or upside-down bucket. Press the paper around the upside-down bucket or top half of a small ball shaping the crown of the hat with your hands. Hold the paper in place while your helper wraps large pieces of packing tape around the paper to use as a hat band. When you are done, remove your hat from the form and decorate with silk flowers or even better, paper flowers that you made from even more used wrapping paper.

Awhile back I posted that my goal was to tell even the most reluctant consumer about stuff to recycle that won't take much of your time and effort. I admit that I haven't set the woods on fire but (patting myself on the back here) I have managed to post a few worthwhile tips for recycling stuff like our old tennis shoes and toys with links to organizations that accept these donations. And since lots of kids will be getting new athletic shoes and toys for Christmas, this information should help to keep the old ones from being tossed in the trash to be delivered to the local landfill.


Now, back to our list of 101 things to do with used wrapping paper. Most of us know many ways to use recycled Christmas cards in our crafts projects, but when I checked there aren't many tips on how to reuse old wrapping paper.

Have you found some wonderful way to use up a stash of old gift wrap? I really don't care if you recycle your wrapping paper by lining the cat litter box, to entertain the kids or to create paper mache Santa Claus figurines; please send me your ideas. If you hurry your tip will be the very first on my list of creative ways to recycle wrapping paper!

HOW TO RECYCLE YOUR SHOES

You really need to learn how to recycle your shoes if you're sitting crosslegged on the bed looking at this blog on your laptop and when you're done you have to kick your old tennis shoes out of the way to get to the kitchen or the bathroom. There are better ways of recycling those old shoes than using them (in their current form) as a lumpy area rug on your bedroom floor.

SHOE RECYCLING PROGRAMS

A remote location is no excuse for harboring a closet full of athletic shoes, dress shoes, baby shoes or any other kind of shoes for that matter since there are recycling programs for shoes all over the planet; I counted 11 in the good old United States on one page and others Peru, the UK and even a couple in Peru and New South Wales..how cool is that? You can read up on each program's mission to see that your old skids will be given a new life according to your wishes.

SHOE DONATION CHARITIES

Organizations like Souls4Souls (www.soles4souls.org/), Up and Running [www.upandrunning.co.uk], Recycled Runners [www.recycledrunners.com.au], or Eco-Cycle [www.ecocycle.org] are all excellent places to donate those shoes...BUT...if you aren't close enough to one of the recycling programs to drop them off on your way to work, don't ship those shoes! To donate your shoes locally a better "green" way to go since your method of delivery may have a smaller carbon footprint since you can walk over to the neighborhood church and give your shoes to their clothes closet. Volunteers at the church will deliver them to needy children who will be tickled to get new (to them) shoes that fit and keep their feet warm and dry.

What did you say? Your church doesn't have such a program to provide clothes and/or shoes to the needy? Well, why don't you hike your butt down there and devise a plan of action to remedy that and have the honor of making the first donation? You not only learn how to recycle your shoes, but teach others the finer points of charity while you're at it!


CHOP SHOPS FOR SHOES

You know how old cars that land in salvage yards get stripped for their usable parts before being shipped to metal recycling facilities? You can now do the same thing with your old shoes since there are parts that can be recycled assuming that they are no longer any good whole, of course.

The rubber of their soles can actually be recycled into a variety of products, the most common being flooring in athletic facilities where concrete and tile floors wreak havoc on athletes. The best known of these programs is the Nike Reuse-a-Shoe program, based in Wilsonville, Oregon. The Nike Reuse a Shoe program takes the donated shoes and grinds them down to recycle the rubber into flooring for indoor basketball courts, running tracks and tennis courts. Here's how to recycle your shoes using Nike's shoe recycling program. Just take as many as 10 pairs of your old athletic shoes to your local Nike store or your local recycling center.

Now that you know how to recycle your shoes, I know that you will want to take things to the next level and maybe start your own group shoe drive. However, I just read that they are currently not accepting any shoe drive applications, but that could change any day so visit the Nike shoe recycling website to get the current status if this is something that you would like to do.

GREEN HOME CLEANING SOLUTIONS

Any list offering tips for green home cleaning solutions should involve more than recipes for green household cleaners. Not that chemical free toilet cleaners are not a step in the right direction but those of you still using paper products should be aware that paper products (paper towels, facial tissues, etc) made up 20.7 % of the municipal waste discarded in 2008. Yep, that year it was reported that there was 6,550,000 tons of paper and paperboard waste.

I got curious as to how much my own home was contributing to this problem so I decided to conduct an experiment (being as experiments are so cool and I needed something to write about in the worst way). What I did was direct hubby and the older girls to throw every facial tissue and paper towel into a special trash bin. They were so enthusiastic about being asked to participate that they actually asked if there was going to be a waste can next to the toilet! I thought about it and had to admit that collecting toilet paper would have given more accurate results but dismissed the thought as a little too gross.

Before the day was out my trash can was overflowing with wet wipes and tissues used to wipe runny noses much less paper towels that I used to clean the glass, kitchen and bathroom surfaces!

Wow, this really made me aware that I needed to bone up on my all around green home cleaning solutions and not just how to clean a toilet without toxic chemicals and this is the plan that I came up with.

• toss the mop that has disposable mop heads and shop for one with a washable cover
  
• stop using paper towels and invest in low lint microfiber cleaning cloths
  
• stop using disposable scrub pads and buy scrubbing stones (that would probably be the only thing that will tackle those pesky toilet bowl rings anyway)

The results that I expect to see should come in the way of less money spent on disposables and a much emptier can on trash pickup day.

The unexpected amount of paper that I collected in such a short time was a reminder that even though I've made great strides toward making a green home for my family, there is much work to be done and that going green is an ongoing process.

STUFF TO RECYCLE

I was talking to my neighbor today and she said she never had stuff to recycle. I said, and I quote "WHAT"??? Not wanting to get on the bad side of my next door neighbor, but I bet her a ($100) that I could go through her garbage can and come up with a huge pile of recyclable garbage.

She didn't jump at my offer and whether or not she has a dead body in her dumpster that she needs to hide is between her and the law but it did prompt me to start making a list of stuff to recycle in case she happens by my blog.

EVERYDAY STUFF

Who doesn't get more than enough junk mail? I get stacks upons stacks of the stuff and even though I try to go through the proper channels to get my name taken off of lists. The special papers from local stores and the like still get put under my mulch to block weeds so nothing goes to waste.

Other items that we toss before thinking things through (that I'll bet you were hiding in your garbage can...you know who you are) are blown out flipflops, old VHS video tapes, prescription bottles and styrofoam shipping peanuts.

Here's more stuff on my list to recycle:

JEANS: If they are so threadbare they show my buttocks, I cut squares to use in crafts projects and then recycle the rest.

And there's more! You can recycle everything from your shredded bank statements to your old car tires. Even your old sheets and shower curtains can be given a second shot at usefulness if you are creative, resourceful and will allow somebody to advise you as to how best reduce the amount of household garbage that you throw into the landfills!

Here's a list of stuff to recycle that has 50 items that those who are not up to snuff on green living practices might toss in the garbage.

Recycled Artwork

Pay close attention while I tell you about how I found my recycled artwork because you are probably going to want to copy my idea! I love to buy old, previously loved items and give them new life. During my latest foray through the flea market, I picked up some old children’s storybooks that had seen better days. Actually, they were literally falling apart and my friends thought I was totally crazy at the time, but now they are so jealous of my recycled art!

Luckily, all of the other shoppers skipped over these wonderful Mother Goose books because their covers were so damaged and worn. I, myself, almost didn’t take the time to open them and see what was inside. But when I did, I found the most precious illustrations that after my recycling efforts, have a new life as my kids wall art!

What I did was to pick the books clean of all the pages that had frameable pictures on them. The results were delightful art prints that didn’t set me back a bundle. And I didn't even have to pay for framing. I don’t believe that I could have done better than the plain, wooden frames that I had bought at a thrift store awhile back.

A fancy, new (read: expensive) picture frame would have detracted from the beauty of the slightly aged pictures. To make them look just right I wanted to surround my recycled artwork with wood that was either reclaimed or that had been rescued from a second hand store and thankfully, the ones that I had on hand were just the right size.

I would have felt lousy tearing the old book apart if the binding had been in good shape. But as it was, the pages were coming loose from the spine and were headed for the landfill. What once was a beautiful book that when read by a loved one eased a sleepy child into dreamland was no longer suitable for its original purpose.

Should the book have been better taken care of, there is no way that I could have violated it even though I may not have wanted my teething babies to chew on it in fear that the book’s print may have contained lead. But as it was, I pulled off the ultimate recycling coup and my recycled artwork looks super in my kids’ room.

PAPER OR PLASTIC

The next time you’re asked whether you would prefer paper or plastic, why not make an informed decision rather than just choosing paper because you think that might be more in keeping with going green. Do you ever wonder if banning plastic bags really has an impact on the building piles of plastic litter? Does choosing paper over plastic have it’s drawbacks as it leads to more deforestation?

THE PROBLEMS WITH PLASTIC BAGS

The very first run-in I ever had with plastic bags had little to do with green living. I was too young to remember my near death experience of suffocation by plastic but my mom gives the event credit for giving her a gray streak in her hair. The story goes that a small portion of a plastic cleaner bag blew across my face and stuck while I was riding in my baby car seat unbeknownst to my mother who was driving. She swears that she happened to glance in the rearview mirror and swerved to the roadside just in time to rescue me from becoming a plastic bag suffocation victim. The lesson learned is to not hang the dry cleaning anywhere near sleeping babies or kids of any age.

Beyond their tendency to suffocate kids, the plastic bag problem encompasses overflowing landfills, clogged sewers and ingestion of the stuff that refuses to biodegrade by animals, birds and marine life.

BANNING PLASTIC BAGS

There are a number of countries banning plastic bags outright and others are imposing taxes on their use. San Francisco, California is the first and only major city in America to pass a plastic bag ban.


ALTERNATIVES TO PAPER OR PLASTIC

Environmentalists are in favor of our using bags made of a biodegradable cornstarch-based plastic to customers who don’t have their own reusable canvas grocery bags. These bags have the same biodegradable characteristics and convenience of paper bags without contributing to deforestation.

ARE PAPER BAGS BETTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

If plastic is banned will that just lead to more problems? It’s a fact that this could lead to increased deforestation but the good news is that most paper bags are now made from recycled materials not virgin wood. Plus, there is the additional benefit of paper’s biodegradability.

The truth is that there are issues surrounding the use of paper or plastic bags. For now, perhaps the best answer is to break out the old sewing machine and make some fabric shopping bags to use while the argument of paper vs. plastic rages on. And while you’re at it, make some for your friends who are devoted to green living. Mother Earth and future generations will be eternally grateful.

TERRACYCLE PRODUCTS IN WALMART

Here's a heads up to look for Terracyle products in Walmart from April 5 to April 29 coinciding with Earth Day! I just read that Terracycle will be keeping 60 products in every Wal-Mart across the United States during that time span and it would be a shame if anybody misses them!

If you're wondering what I find so exciting about this company, you should visit the Terracyle website and take a look at their garbage recycling process. Their claim to environmental fame is that they actually convert your household trash into products that are being sold at major retailers. And the day that there are Terracycle products in Walmart, well, that's a day to crow about!

HISTORY

The company was nine years ago by a Princeton graduate right out of business school and what they do is convert non-recyclable stuff like plastic potato chip bags and plastic bottles into items that are now being sold at big name stores like Wal-Mart, Target, and K-Mart.

Not only is the company doing something to clean up the planet, but they actually pays consumers to send in their garbage or drop it off at one of their collection centers to be converted into usable items like children's toys, kitchen cutting boards. And they do all this using a very small amount of energy which is key to effective recycling and green living in my book!

Make a point to check out the Terracycle Products in Walmart and if you see a manager lurking around give him a big, hearty pat on the back for drawing attention to earth friendly companies and their products...now if they would only stock more organic foods.

RECYCLING BABY STUFF

I’m all for recycling baby stuff not only to keep the landfills from spilling over but to save money. Not willing to be penny rich and pound poor or spend a dime to save a nickel or vice versa, I bought quality baby clothes and shoes for my first daughter in gender neutral (well most of the time) styles.

Knowing that there would be more little ones coming down the pike (odd name for a vagina, right?) and that I could reap huge financial benefits by using these items to dress, feed and entertain more than one newborn. Some of my efforts were more rewarding than others, but for the most part I was very successful in saving lots of money especially on items necessary for baby’s first year in the nursery.

Here are some ideas for recycling baby stuff that worked best for me. Of course the amount of your savings may vary depending on the sex of your babies and how far apart they were born.

RECYCLING TIPS
1.Save those gowns and footed sleepers. You can never have too many to change into after a spit up or a diaper failure. Stains don’t matter and the cotton fabric gets softer and more comfortable with each trip through the laundry.

2.My girls’ used crib shoes and socks still look brand new even after being worn by three babies. If you know how much soft soled leather baby shoes cost you know that this is a very good example of saving money by recycling baby stuff. One caution that I would add is to be sure that you store them in a dry place between births as I lost a couple of pairs to mold (or was it mildew) when I put them in a cardboard box on the floor of the closet.

3.Strollers and baby beds are expensive and big money savers so long as you keep up with recalls. I actually came out alright by selling mine and buying newer models used for my second and third baby when storage space at my house was scarce. I didn’t feel guilty because by buying used, I was still recycling baby stuff and keeping it out of the junkyard.

BABY STUFF THAT MIGHT NOT BE WORTH RECYCLING
1.Stained outfits were a real downer for me (other than sleepwear). I had more fun shopping yard sales for used baby clothes that were in good shape and friends gave me some free baby stuff that had never been used at all that they had lying around that was too good to throw away but that didn't fit their child.

2.My nursery decorations for each girl were not expensive, but I wanted fresh, new bedding and decorative items rather than crumpled stuff out of a trunk.

3.Check the date on your infant car seats as most car seats are considered unusable six years past the date of manufacture. Once again, keep updated on car seat safety recalls.

Those are just a few tips on recycling baby stuff and if you have some frugal and earth friendly ideas of your own to share please leave them in the comments section on Family Recipes, Babies and Parenting Issues so that we all can do our part in improving our environment.

REUSABLE BAGS - MY GREEN LIVING FAUX PAS

If you are a regular reader, you know I truly try to live green and make good chemical free decisions whenever possible. However, management of my reusable bags is one area where I struggle.


Sadly, I am a spur of the moment kind of girl that is often wagging one baby on the hip, one in the belly and pulling another along behind in protest for one reason or another. For that reason, when the lady at the checkout counter pops out the question, "Paper or plastic" I'm often left with my environmental underwear hanging out. I have a bad habit of neglecting to pack my sturdy reusable fabric bags that I vowed to use as my small part in saving trees. My mantra is "Today a tree. Tomorrow the world".

But all too often I'm left standing in the checkout line at the discount store resisting the urge to yell NEITHER at the lady who in my mind should be pushing reusable bags instead of environmentally un-friendly options. In a weak moment with an unhappy toddler and a sleeping baby I little choice but to meekly murmur that I'd like paper as paper sacks are the least offensive of the options offered. Plus, I can always reuse the paper bags for different purposes at home that will keep them out of the landfill.

Alas, going green is a process just like weight control. You can't give up just because you have one unfortunate slip. It helps me to remember that as unorganized and overwhelmed as I am most days that I still remember to pack my homemade shopping bags made of sturdy organic cotton and reclaimed burlap.

Return to Oooh Baby! Parenting and Environmental Issues to read more of my trials and travails in my efforts to go green for the sake of my family and kids as well as the planet.

WAYS TO RECYCLE CHRISTMAS CARDS, ORNAMENTS and the TREE!

Merry Christmas! I just wanted to drop a reminder to recycle your Christmas cards and decorations. You will be rewarded many times over for taking a few additional, easy steps while opening your gifts and taking down your decorations.

RECYCLING YOUR CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS

It only takes a few minutes to tuck your ornaments into a box to reuse next year while you are taking down the Christmas tree. Wrap the breakable items in tissue paper to cushion them and wind those endless strands of lights around a paper towel tube or an old broomstick that you were smart enough to save when the broom itself was past repair.

WAYS TO RECYCLE CHRISTMAS CARDS

Here are some tips to keep those beautiful greeting cards from going to waste.

• Snip the names and handwritten greetings off the card and save the beautiful art, graphics and Christmas poems on the cards for craft projects for the kids to use in their crafts projects next fall. They can enjoy cutting out the pictures and threading a pretty ribbon through a hole to decorate a children's tree in their bedroom.
  
  
• Package them up and recyle Christmas cards by mailing them via UPS "ground" or "bound printed matter" to the St. Jude's Ranch that collects and reuses old Christmas cards: St. Jude's Card Recycling, 100 St. Jude Street, P.O. Box 60100, Boulder City, Nevada 89006.
  
  
• Trim them into sizes to use as gift tags next year.
  

CHRISTMAS TREE RECYCLING PROGRAMS

The most important item to recycle is the Christmas tree. If you cut down a tree to decorate, please take advantage of one of the free programs to recycle your Christmas tree. Here are some ideas of how to get this taken care of:

• Contact your town's street and water department to find the address of facilities where you can take your tree to be ground up to make mulch for your yard.
  
  
• Check with your local fish and wildlife officials to see if they are taking trees to put in ponds and lakes to provide breeding spots for fish.
  
  
• The most environmentally friendly, green way to have a tree for the holidays is to have a potted, live tree that can be planted outdoors after the decorations have been removed.
  
  

While your family is involved with unwrapping gifts, don't forget to remind them to save those ribbons, boxes and bows. When we recycle Christmas cards and holiday items we save trees and in the long run; our planet.

Return to Oooh Baby Baby Parenting Recycling and Environmental Issues to see more ways to make the Christmas holidays more green.