Springhole.net Blog

There is a hole on the edge of my parents’ property, which for some reason some of our relatives feel entitled to throw their trash into instead of hauling it to the proper disposal areas, IE, a recycling center or thrift store.

The other day I passed by this hole when I noticed the last thing they’d tried to throw into it – and I do mean “tried,” because it wasn’t in there very well. They had cut down a pine tree and a juniper and had attempted to use the hole to dispose of it. Not a big deal; that stuff’s compostable. I passed by to get a closer look and see if the wood would be useful for any projects later on (and hey, pinecones!), and discovered something… well, horrifying.

Someone had thrown away a large load of perfectly good stuff – more than I could fit into my car in one haul. And by “perfectly good,” I mean…

-Several unopened rolls of contact paper
-One Calvin & Hobbes collection book
-Several Garfield collection books
-Five fantasy novels, decent condition
-Several childrens’ books, ranging from poor to extremely good condition
-A box full of cheesy Western romances
-An adorable porcelain doll in her box
-Several holiday gift boxes in nice condition
-A plastic grocery bag containing a teenager’s costume jewelry
-Decorative flattened marbles
-One small Caboodles jewelry box
-Several flowerpots
-And other odds and ends.

This stuff was perfectly good. Perfectly usable. And yet, someone couldn’t be bothered to donate it to a thrift store. Never mind this economy. Never mind that plastics leech toxins and carcinogens into the soil as they degrade. Never mind that a thrift store would have been a closer drive than the hole.

Here’s an odd product you can reuse – pickle brine.

Some people enjoy picked eggs – that is, eggs that are boiled, shelled, and placed into pickle brine.  Boiled eggs make for a nice protein-rich snack, but I can’t vouch for the taste since I can’t stand pickled eggs.  I’ve heard from my relatives who do this that it works, however.

If eggs aren’t your thing, you can put whatever vegetable you want into the brine.  Some people like to soak onions in pickle brine overnight to use on their hamburgers.

Now bear in mind that the vinegar will be less potent (and less flavorful) than a fresh batch of pickle brine, so you should plan on only keeping whatever you’re pickling in the refrigerator (do NOT reuse brine for canning) and eating it relatively soonish.  Also, don’t reuse the brine more than once.

Some people soak sponges in brine and use them on their copper kettles.  (Adding a little salt is also supposed to be helpful.)

Pickle jars are also easily reusable.  Rather than buying glass pitchers, we just started keeping our large pickle jars for brewing tea.

While perusing Planet Green’s blog, I found the following:

You recycle yogurt containers? I want to but haven’t found a place here. Our plastics recycling take #1 & #2 only, and just the ones that are shaped like soda bottles or milk jugs, etc. So yogurt & sour cream and plastic cups are just trash I really want to recycle the items.

Don’t despair! There are a lot of things you can do with yogurt and sour cream containers right in your own home. They’re extremely useful and reusable!

• Put water in them to rinse your brush while painting. (Works best with small yogurt cups.)
• Use them as freezer containers.
• Put leftovers in them.
• Store various odds and ends in them – craft stuff, pencils, nails, screws, loose change… whatever needs stored at the time.
• Punch a hole in the lid of a yogurt cup and put a straw through it to transform a yogurt cup into a sippy cup.
• Yogurt cups can also be used to start seeds.
• Use them to scoop stuff – dirt, sand, animal feed, etc.

And there you go. Even if your recycling center doesn’t take them, you can still find ways to keep them from going in the trash.

Plastic shopping bags. Ah, a mixed blessing. Their handles make them much easier to carry than paper bags, you don’t have to worry about moist products (such as produce or meat) getting them wet, they’re great for scaring off annoying critters, but… well, they’re made of plastic. Not the nicest material on the planet.

Even so, there’s no sense in letting them go to waste if you really can’t avoid bringing them home. Around here we try to put them to good use. They make great trash bags for your small trash cans. We have a black bag designed to hang from the back of seats in cars; instead of buying the miniature trash bags we were undoubted intended to buy, we just stuff a plastic grocery sack into it.

Plastic grocery sacks can also be used as packing material. I wrap delicate Christmas decorations in them when putting them away for the year. You can also use them to protect your hands when you have to pick up really icky stuff.

More… creative people have other solutions. Some crochet them or make them into raincoats.

Most people probably don’t want to go on a crochet rampage with their plastic bags, so here are 22 Creative Ways to Use Plastic Grocery Bags that are a little more practical for the rest of us. Hm… now that I read this list, it reminds me of some of the other things I’ve used them for over the years. Also check out 10 Smart Uses for Old Plastic Bags.