What did you throw away today?

It is the first sentence out of the Dutch book from 1982; Reuse from A to Z, written by Carolyn Jabs.

In the 80th People in the Netherlands threw more than 300 kg a year away. From old cloths, chemicals, household-, garden waste, used wood, TV’s and washing machines.

The question asked was that not only the government but society as a whole has to change their habits towards wasting resources.

Re-use saves money, resources and recycling brakes the continuous urge to develop new products.

A definition used at time about waste was; thrown away organic material which was at that time about 20 % of the households. Of course there were the cans, plastic- and glass articles. Not a lot yet was written about electronical waste let alone E-waste which hardly existed at that time.

It was stated that we could re-use organic waste and transfer it in; alcohol as fuel for small machines. Methane to heat our houses and compost of garden- and agricultural activities.

So let’s start with A from this book out of 1982 and amaze yourself about the bright ideas already were mentioned almost 35 years ago.

What about re-useing dish soap bottles? 

Dish Soap gets sold in high plastic bottles. They are all made from pure polyethylene (1982) and so society should be collecting these bottles and refill them with dish soap. Because this is not happening we can re-sue these bottles by our self.

Even when the bottle is empty we can re-use them for many purposes. Just continue for the posibilities for your empty bottle of: Joy, Sunlight, Palmolive, Dreft, Sunsilk, etc.

If the bottle is empty put small leftovers of from a solid soap bar in the bottle. Fill it up with water, shake it and you created yourself a bottle with liquid saop to wash your hands.

• Cut the empty bottle in 2 pieces. Use the bottom part to plant seedlings and the top side as a funnel.
• A lot of people make their own detergent. Store them in the old bottle and put a clear sticker on it what explains what’s in it.
• Always keep a bottle close by with water so you can fill a steam iron, cleaning smudge spots on cloth and water plants.
• For children the empty bottles are ideal to play with in summertime. Ideal for a water fight in the garden.
• You also can use the bottle empty to blow the air in the bottle of fragile items which has to be cleaned.

This is the first article in a series of 24 which will be published over a period of October till December 2017.