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Household kitchen items you can use again

How full is your bin when the council comes to empty it every couple of weeks? If you have trouble closing the lid, there’s a good chance you are guilty of disposing of items that could be used again. We all do it but that doesn’t condone our actions. Don’t worry though, we’ve come up a few ideas in our latest blog so you can reuse stuff instead of throwing it away.

Tin foil What’s your thought on reusing tin foil? Hopefully you’ll be eager to try because there are countless ways to reuse tin foil. One option is to use foil to clean rust off steel or chrome, just scrunch it up and start scrubbing. Another is to sharpen scissors, just fold the foil over a few times then cut through it and you sharpen the blades. Finally, you can create ‘plant shields’ with used foil, wrap it around stems to keeps bugs and insects at bay.

Freezer bags Yep, save those freezer bags after use, simply soak them in soapy water, rinse and dry them out and use them time and time again. Why buy fresh ones when you can carry on reusing bags and save money and waste at the same?

Old margarine tubs Plastic margarine tubs are great containers for slices of fruit, pieces of pasta, couscous, nuts and berries, in fact they make really useful lunch packs. Wash them out thoroughly first and you can open and close the lid on countless occasions and have a sealed container for a range of produce.

Egg boxes Want to create a nifty paint palette for the kids? Try the base of an egg box and they can have tons of fun mixing and matching colours. Egg boxes are good for organising beads, nuts and screws, you can plant starter seeds in them and you can fill the plastic bases with water, pop them in the fridge and you have the perfect DIY ice tray too.

Just think before you throw waste away, is it really rubbish or could it lead another life?

Tips to make household items last longer

We encourage the reduction of waste at PCWS and see far too many households throw out items that still have plenty of life left in them. Instead of throwing things away when they are running a little low, or opening fresh products when you think something has run out, double check and see if there are few more uses left in it. Here are some household tips for you to try.

Toothpaste – Having trouble squeezing all the toothpaste out of the tube. Roll it up from bottom to top and get as many brushes out of the paste as you can. Another tip is a cut open the tube when you think it’s empty, you’ll get a couple of more brushes at least.

Store bottle upside down – Ketchup, shampoos and any other plastic bottles benefit from being stored the wrong way up. It makes it easier to get the product out of the bottles when you store them upside down and prevents waste at the same time.

Use shower gel sparingly – Take notice of the amount of gel you use in the shower. The next time you take a shower squeeze less on your hands. Bet you get just as good a lather and use less product in the product.

Cut down on detergents – Read the manufacturer’s recommendations for detergent and totally ignore it. They want you to use more of their products quicker so you have to buy their goods sooner. Cut back on the amount of washing powder you use, your clothes will still be clean, it’ll just take you longer to get through the packet.

Use every last drop of ink – When your printer flags up a warning saying it has run out of ink ignore it, keep printing until the ink runs dry. Save wastage by only printing what you need, that will make the ink last longer too.

All you need is a bit of thought and you’ll discover plenty of handy hints to make household goods last longer.

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