Home & Garden
With the longest, coldest, most horrible winter since the dawn of time almost behind us, a spring clear out is well and truly on the cards. While chuck-it-in-the-green-bin recycling is a good place to start, you might just find that your trash is just what someone else is looking for and that it can live a much more useful second life.
For any household goods you're ditching, Emmaus is the perfect place. The charity employs ex-homeless people who undertake a range of tasks, including restoring donated furniture and using profits to live self-sufficiently.
If the thought of a spring cleanout on your own seems daunting, roping in friends should make things more bearable, and if the word 'party' is involved it's almost quite appealing. Swishing parties are a top trend in eco-friendly fashion at the moment, letting you revamp your wardrobe without buying anything new.
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Galleries
Old milk cartons, used party poppers and empty drinks cans sound to me like a list of things to rinse, sort and put in the correctly coloured bins with no thought to how they might be reincarnated.
Well, apparently there is an art to recycling, and these objects have been used to make some the most interesting and individual art around. Recycled art tends to be commission based because of its unique nature, and is the perfect way to be green whilst getting your hands on a one-off work of art. See our gallery to discover recycling in a new light, and to find out the true meaning of one man's trash being another man's treasure...
CLICK THE IMAGE TO START THE GALLERY
Recycling
Billed as combining the best bits of Freecycle and eBay, the wonderfully-named GoodNewsForPolarBears is a free local recycling website that lets people recycle things they no longer need by simply giving them to other people that DO need them.
Like eBay, items are listed with multiple photos, helping others see exactly what's on offer - except all items listed must be free. The only difference though is that all the items are FREE. Visitors can search the site, browse through categories, or set alerts to get automatically emailed when stuff they want is on offer.
The website's founder, who goes by the mysterious name of 'The Big Bear', set up the site in response to seeing perfectly serviceable items being dumped at the household recycling site:
"I realised that some people were dumping perfectly good items like baby stair-gates, patio furniture, and computers, while another bunch were in the high street buying the exact same stuff. It seemed like such a waste. Many of those buying new would have been perfectly happy with a used item for free, and many of those dumping stuff would've been over the moon to have someone take it off their hands and put it to good use."
The site which has just come out of beta testing has so far attracted about 1100 members with suppport from prominent people like Sir David Attenborough, Arne Naevra (Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year), and Nicholas Hanley (Directorate-General Environment at the EC in Brussels).
The site helps the environment by helping people to recycle consumer goods, thereby reducing waste and landfill, and conserving raw materials and relies on donations to keep it going. Currently offered on the site free of charge are a Samsung Colour TV, old fashioned oak teachers' desk and a ladies' wetsuit, size 14.
www.GoodNewsForPolarBears.org
Recycling
Do your bit for the environment by composting this autumn. Working in partnership with a number of local authorities, the Recycle Now campaign is encouraging keen and novice gardeners alike to take advantage of the final days of a number of bargain compost bin offers being run by local authorities. But you'll need to hurry, as the scheme ends on 30 September.
Carl Nichols, Head of Home Composting at Recycle Now, says:
"Autumn is a great time to get composting as we all tend to have a clear-up in the garden before winter sets in. Leaves, grass and clippings put in with general waste end up in landfill where they release harmful greenhouse gases as they break down - composting at home helps reduce this problem."
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Recycling
If you're off to one of the season's many festivals and are already freaking out about the rain forecast, you might want to check out this fantastic lightweight jacket made from "approximately 15 old bottles".
Not only is it the cutting edge of style and eco innovation, it's also associated with one of the greenest bands on the planet, as it's available through Radiohead's own online eco emporium, w.a.s.t.e. It should also keep you dry.
Bag one here for £45
Related: Get eco-chic festival style for summer | Flock: fashion that doesn't follow the herd
Recycling
I never had a night light as a child, but from what I do know they're supposed to help if you're scared of the dark. Somehow I don't think this one would have helped me, but still, its gorgeously made and very unique.
It comes from RE, a shop in Northumberland that sells products that have been remade, recycled or rescued. From shelves, to cards, to
light fittings.
If you're made of stronger stuff then I, and you want the Mexican Day of the Dead Skull Nightlight Cover, you can order it online for £17.50
Recycling
You can do some really pretty things with tin cans (just ask Glittermouse!) but I've not seen anyone use this remarkably simple technique of turning them into nifty pincushions before. The outer part of the can is coated with decorative while the inside is stuffed with poly fill stuffing and covered with a fabric layer. Instead of waffling on about the process any further, I'll direct you to the entire tutorial, which is over on Design Sponge.
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