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8/06/2018

Recycling Matters

Is recycling important to you?
Unfortunately, countries like Honduras do not have a recycling initiative. There are no recycling centers (That I know of. If there are, they are a unknown, far away, and unmarked).
There is also no education from either schools or parents on recycling issues.
But there are ways you can get on the recycling wagon.

Recycling is very important to me. It's a way to give new life to things that would otherwise end in the trash causing greater pollution, and it's a way to be frugal, creative, and resourceful.
It is not news that I am a DIY enthusiast. My mom recently offered to buy some a painting to spruse up my house. I told her if she wanted to do that, I would very much love a canvas and some watercolors to do it myself. It will be far cheaper, entertaining, educational, personalized, and fun.
DIY is part of who I am. It makes me smile and destress.
Recycling has started to become an integral part of my DIY and also a way to get in more exercise.
See, the nearest recycling center is 5 blocks away. It gives the girl and I an excuse to take a walk once a week.

It takes an effort. I have to stock this separately from my regular trash which takes up space. I have to walk those blocks with trash bags on my hands which some would find embarassing. I have to scold the hubs when he forgets to separate the recycling from the regular trash, and I go as far as pulling that out when he did throw it in the trash and washing it. It is that important to me.

Every cereal box ever used in my house ends up recycled into something else. Currently, I am making the favor boxes for Emmalee's upcoming birthday (yes, the one on December. That is OCD, baby). Each box takes two cereal boxes, so I can only make one every week.
Cardboard is so valuable to me. My sister called me a hoarder because we went to the recycling center with a bag of my cutout cardboard, milk boxes, plastic, and paper, and I came back with a stranger's cardboard box. I asked for it before she threw it in the pile, FYI. It will be transformed into a lovely cake stand. You'll see.

You might be thinking recycling is not for you. Well, I am sure you have pizza boxes and soda bottles inconveniencing your trash can filling it up quickly, as are the juice boxes or bottles, milk boxes, cereal boxes, and pretty much everything that clogs your trash can pretty quickly. Conveniently, this trash does not produce odor or spillage (if they're completely empty), so letting it stock up is not that hard to do.

We all know the world is in danger, but we are expecting others to solve it for us.
Being indifferent to recycling is not very Christian. We were commanded to be good stewards of what God has given us. Recycling is a way to do more than expected. Are we teaching it to our children? How? By example? Is the TV doing a better job of making your child environmentally responsible than you are? That is not a good example or an integral education. It is something that should matter to you as well as your children.

I wanted to show you a few projects I've made in the house using reclycling materials. I've recently learn there is so much more I could be doing with cardboard and other house items that makes me excited to explore how much more I can recycle, re-use, and give items a second life.
You can check out my other DIY posts here, where you can see my birthday celebrations, the DIY cardboard play kitchen, cardboard doll houses, and my nursery and home decor projects.

The girls love putting the items in the recycling center, but don't like taking pictures. That is Kaylee's "cheese" pose. 

Start them young!


A banner in Emmalee's birthday.

This cute frames are also cereal boxes

That faux chimney? It's a bicycle box.

I loved working on this shelf for the girls' books.

It took a few days.

It is made from a TV box, two more boxes, and toilet paper rolls. I don't use paper towel which is why the pillars are a little crooked. 

I kept checking every morning in fear that it had collapsed or something. It's been used for a week now and it looks exactly the same, so it is holding up quite nicely. 

My mom got a gift from work that had tissue paper with L'OCCITANE gold lettering. Mom gave it to me and said "I'm sure you'll find something to do with this." She did not imagine I would use it for her birthday decoration as the flowers on the "mom" sign. The 50 was done using cereal boxes. 

paper roll and shoe boxes turned into a center piece for Emmalee's last birthday.


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